WILLIE HEDGES HIS BETS ON YORKHILL RUN
THERE are few surprises among the entries for the seven Grade 1 races, the highlights of Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival.
But speculation continues about future plans for Yorkhill on the basis of his two high-profile entries at Leopardstown over the Christmas period.
A three-time Grade 1 winner over hurdles and beaten only once in four starts over fences last season (when pipped by Road To Respect in the Ryanair Gold Cup at Fairyhouse), Yorkhill could develop into a Gold Cup contender or revert to hurdling, with the Champion Hurdle his target. And his Christmas entries enforce this belief.
Significantly, Willie Mullins has entered Yorkhill for the €150,000 Leopardstown Christmas Chase (formerly the Lexus) and the Ryanair Hurdle, but not the Paddy’s Rewards Club Chase, for which the champion trainer can choose between Douvan, Min and Sunday’s Hilly Way winner Un De Sceaux, which is likely to skip Christmas and head for an unprecedented third win in the Clarence
House Chase at Ascot in January.
Meanwhile, Jessica Harrington will not commit to definite plans for Sizing John in the wake of his impressive seasonal debut victory in the John Durkan at Punchestown on
Sunday.
She said: “I’d love to run Sizing John at Leopardstown over Christmas, but we’ll do whatever is right for the horse.”
It is likely Sizing John, winner of a hat-trick of Gold Cups last season, will have only one more run between now and his bid for a second Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Whether that comes at Christmas or in the Irish Gold Cup in February remains to be seen.
And, if he runs at Christmas, it will almost certainly be at Leopardstown on December 28.
Harrington also indicated she intends running both former Champion Hurdler Jezki and Coral Cup winner Supasundae, third to Apple’s Jade in the recent Hatton’s Grace at Fairyhouse on his seasonal debut, in Leopardstown’s three-mile Squared Financial Christmas Hurdle.
Eddie Hartytrained Coney Island, a Grade 1-winning novice and off the track since being narrowly beaten by Our Duke at Leopardsown last Christmas, schooled well in Punchestown on Sunday and is set to return to competitive action in a ‘winners of two’ in Ascot on
Saturday week, December 23.
Festival winning rider Mikey Fogarty, inset, (27), has decided to retire from the saddle.
Successful on Don Poli in the 2014 Martin Pipe at Cheltenham, highlight of his 140 career wins, Fogarty is back working with his brother
Johnny at Gaynestown Stud, Wexford, and hopes to continue his hurling career with St Anne’s.