It’s plain sailing for Hiddenvalley Lake on return to Navan
HIDDENVALLEY LAKE made a successful return to the smaller obstacles in the William Hill Boyne Hurdle at Navan yesterday. Henry de Bromhead’s chestnut had a good reputation as a novice hurdler but did not quite deliver at the highest level when ninth in the Albert Bartlett at Cheltenham last March. He started out over fences this time around and contested a beginners chase at this venue in December, where he fell three from home. Subsequently switched back to hurdling, the seven-year-old always looked happy in the Grade Two event, as he travelled well under Darragh O’Keeffe in the absence of the suspended Rachael Blackmore. Over the penultimate flight, he already looked the winner and from there he only strengthened his position to triumph by three and a quarter lengths as the 3/1 favourite. Robbie Power, racing manager to owners Robcour, said: ‘It was a good performance. The plan was obviously to go chasing with him this year and he fell here in a beginners chase before Christmas. ‘It took him a little bit of time to recover after that, and it was getting a bit late in the season, so we thought we’d come back over hurdles and then probably go chasing next season. ‘He’s done plenty of schooling back over hurdles and Henry’s done a lot of work with him. He’s a very good jumper of a fence and was just unfortunate the last day. ‘He loves heavy ground and Darragh said the further he went, the better he jumped. When they stepped on the pace, he jumped better up the straight. ‘We knew he’d stay well over that trip and that ground probably suited him as well. It’s great to get that and we’ll see where we go next. ‘He stays three miles as well and we’ll have a look at all the big festivals coming up and see what the options are.’ The Gordon Elliott-trained American Mike came out on top after a good battle with Nick Rockett in the William Hill Ten Up Novice Chase, landing 7/2 odds under Jack Kennedy. As a result of the victory, he was clipped from 33/1 to 20/1 for the Turners Novices’ Chase with Betfair and from 25/1 to 12/1 for the same race with Coral. ‘To be honest, he’s probably one of the horses that makes me scratch my head more than any other. He keeps disappointing me and then he comes back with a good one again,’ said Elliott. ‘He has obviously got a big engine on his day, when he’s right, but he’s not easy to train. I thought Jack gave him a great ride.’