Paul Townend discusses Min and weekend rides at Fairyhouse and Navan
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It was nice to get Min’s season off to a good start when he won the John Durkan at Punchestown last weekend. I suppose Willie Mullins is strong enough in the 2m-2 ½ mile division so it will be up to him on deciding what’s next.
Un DeSceaux ran very well the day before at Sandown. It is probably too soon to goagain with Min at Christmas but I am sure we will see him between Christmas andthe Dublin Racing Festival.
I have one ride at Fairyhouseon Saturday on Monkfish (1.40). Tobe honest, he was bitterly disappointing on his first run. It was hard work forhim the whole way around. Albeit he was second, we never thought he was goingto win.
Thestep up in trip here and the run under his belt will be a huge help to him. Iwill be hoping for a massive improvement from him. It looks a winnable race andwe will be disappointed if he we can’t go one better.
Sunday
I have three rides at Navan on Sunday, starting with Blackbow (11.30). He was one of the first of our horses to run this year. He needed that run badly in Naas.
Ihope he can progress enough from that to win here. It is a hot maiden hurdlewith a Gordon Elliott/Gigginstown ex-point-to-pointer in there who cost a lotof money. That’s Mr Lingo, and then you have Sizing Pottsie for JessicaHarrington also lining up. It won’t be easy but I hope he can progress enoughto win here.
Sayo (12.30) has been a bit disappointing so reverses to hurdles here which will be a help for him. He just wasn’t in love with jumping fences. He was good the day he won at Galway but any other day, his jumping left a bit to be desired.
Ihope his confidence hasn’t been knocked too much. He is fit from running overfences and although he has an awful lot of weight here, I think he will be anicer hurdler than he was a chaser. It will be interesting to see what hisconfidence is like.
Et Dite (1.00) ran the same day as Blackbow in Naas. She was going off a very long layoff. She is a filly we like a lot and it looks a nice opportunity here for her. We will forgive her first run, but she needs to step up now and I hope she can.
The Christmas period is sobusy and there is plenty of homework to be done with top class racing atLimerick, Leopardstown, and Kempton.
I dida good bit of work this morning to try and get a handle on things. We have toassess everything, find out where horses are going and then I will try and gowhere I can have the most winners. St Stephen’s Day is the busiest day on thecalendar.
It will be very interestingto see if Chacun Pour Soi goes this Christmas. He is the talking horse and whathe did at Punchestown last year speaks for itself. Faugheen will probably runin the Grade 1 Novice in Limerick. Laurina was also very good in her Beginners’at Gowran Park.
I mean there is so much to look forward to andhopefully we can split them up in the right way so I can ride the majority ofthem. In the Ladbrokes King George, Footpad is probably the most likely runnerof ours.
Hewas very good at Thurles and Daryl Jacob’s misfortune the other day atMusselburgh means they will be looking for a jockey so I will be throwing myname into the hat there as well. It is an exciting time of year.
Paul
