Paul Townend: Daddy Long Legs best ride of day at Leopardstown
Published:
In his exclusive blog for Ladbrokes, jockey Paul Townend discusses the prospects of his five rides at Kempton and Leopardstown on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Tuesday
We send Allaho to Kempton on St Stephen’s Day. I can’t wait to ride in a Ladbrokes King George VI Chase. It is a very prestigious race which I haven’t been to before so it is all new and I am looking forward to it.
Allaho is as good a chance I will get of winning a King George. It’s a class race without it being a massive field. You can make a case for everything in it. Hewick and Frodon are consistent performers, while The Real Whacker is the novice from last year who could be overlooked after pulling up on his reappearance this year. I believe he had excuses that day.
Shishkin will be interesting at the start but is obviously a very good horse on his day. Bravemansgame came second in a Gold Cup, was beaten twice this year, but Paul Nicholls has the knack of getting them right for this race.
My horse is a dual Ryanair winner, along with a Punchestown Gold Cup winner, so we are hoping he stays and that the track suits him. Obviously, I am disappointed to be missing some very big rides at Leopardstown, but having a crack on Allaho in this race makes up for it.
Wednesday
He was a good flat winner on his third run at Limerick, beating a filly that ended up being rated 90, so that is a nice level of form. He goes well at home and his jumping has been nice. It is a competitive maiden hurdle as you would expect. I hope he is a nice recruit to the jumping game.
Mark Walsh has opted to ride Dinoblue here. She made a winning start this year at Naas and gets 7lbs so she is an improver. I have Gentleman De Mee who was a very good winner at the course at the Dublin Racing Festival last season. It is his first run back and his first run isn’t always his best so that is a little concern. He is the highest rated horse in the field.
Captain Guiness beat Dysart Dynamo at Navan earlier this year and he will take a lot of beating with race fitness on his side. If my horse can run to his best, then we will see, I am really looking forward to riding him.
We have plenty of runners in this but I picked Daddy Long Legs. I really liked what he did at Thurles. He quickened up really smartly down the hill. Down Memory Lane was very impressive in the North and will take a lot of beating. There is a lot of depth in this race. I like the way my horse done it at Thurles. He is a very smart horse and is my best ride of the day.
He has a lot of weight here. He is a hard horse to get a handle on. He had some very nice runs last year and then some disappointing runs. His run around the track beating Gaillard Du Mesnil and I Am Maximus behind Mighty Potter is very good form. He was just beaten by Gerri Colombe in the Grade 1 at Limerick last year so if he can reproduce something like that he has a lot of class and that can stand for something.
The weight is the worry here. It’s a 28-runner race and it is the type of race you could stick a pin in. You need a lot of luck! His best novice form is very good, but he has thrown in a couple of ordinary runs as well so we will see.
