SCEAUX SPECIAL
UN De Sceaux will face just three rivals, including arch-rival Altior, when he bids for a fourth successive win in the Grade 1 Matchbook Clarence House Chase at Ascot on Saturday.
Now an 11-year-old, the Willie Mullins-trained gelding, no match for Altior when they clashed in the Tingle Creek at Sandown last month, has won the Clarence House twice at Ascot and also triumphed when the race was run at Cheltenham in 2017.
Remarkably, only four horses stood their ground at yesterday’s forfeit stage for the Ascot showpiece, with unbeaten Altior and Un De
Sceaux set to be joined by
Colin Tizzard’s Fox Norton and the Paul Nicholls-trained
Diego Du Charmil.
In Punchestown yesterday, Fozzy Stack (inset) notched his first hurdles success when Carlo Biraghi proved an impressive winner of the four-year-old maiden hurdle, despite hanging before and after the final flight.
Ridden by Danny Mullins and having his first run since finishing unplaced behind Latrobe in the Irish Derby last summer, he bolted-up by seven and a half lengths.
Afterwards Stack said: “He jumped quite well apart from the last – I thought he was going to run out. He stays and gallops and he won’t run at the Dublin Racing Festival – it’s too close.
“He’ll have another run before, maybe, going to Cheltenham, Aintree, or coming back here for the festival. And he’ll mix it for the summer, hurdles and flat. We might look at the likes of the Chester Cup and Ebor for him.”
Gordon Elliott and Willie Mullins were both among the winners, Elliott recording his sixth win in three days for chief patrons Gigginstown House Stud when 6/5 favourite Dallas Des Pictons coasted home under Jack Kennedy in the maiden hurdle.
Elliott went close to completing a double with another favourite Black Tears in the mares maiden hurdle. But Davy Russell’s mount, which made a significant mistake at the second last, failed by a short-head to the Mullins-trained French import Elfile, making her Irish debut under Paul Townend.
Both winner and runner-up should more than pay their way in mares’ events over the coming months.
CROMWELL - whose Global Racing landed a gamble in the three-mile handicap hurdle confirmed that Espoir d’allen will be seen next in the Grade 3 Limestone Lad Hurdle at Naas on Sunday week, January 27.