It’s all about STAYING POWER
Kildare trainer Jessica Harrington has learned to be patient over fences
ANY suggestion to Jessica Harrington that she might be at the time of life to start taking things easy, is greeted with an icy stare from cobalt eyes. Other than an annual break on the ski slopes of Megeve, close to Mont Blanc, Harrington doesn’t put her feet up. Almost 72, the former Irish Olympian is busier than ever.
She oversees a dual-purpose training operation from her County Kildare base with a military-like precision of which her late father, Brigadier Bryan Fowler, would surely approve.
In 2018, Harrington sent out 43 winners on the Flat for a career-high third in the Irish trainers’ table behind the O’Brien’s – Aidan and Joseph.
While so far this season over jumps, she has saddled 36 winners to sit in sixth place.
As all-rounders go, there are few like her in racing. ‘It keeps you sharp,’ she grins.
You suspect that if Harrington was a cricketer, she’d open the batting and be first bowling change, too.
Heck, she could probably do a turn behind the stumps if needed.
‘I love the Flat, but I love having the patience with the jumpers, making sure they get to the end game,’ she said.
‘On the Flat, I’ve got some two-yearolds who have only been with me a few months, but I’ll be making decisions in June, July whether they will race, which ones are good enough and so on. It’s always so much quicker.
‘With jumpers, it’s about patience, you’re in for the long haul.’ Harrington is a say-itas-you-see-it character. She’s also a driven competitor and loves nothing more than putting one over ‘the chaps’ at the big meetings.
Her training career CV glisters. It includes a Champion Chase, Champion Hurdle, Gold Cup, Irish Grand National, 11 Cheltenham Festival winners and, last May, the Irish 1,000 Guineas with her star mare, Alpha Centauri.
Ahead of the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown next weekend, her challenge will be spearheaded by two of her yard’s finest – Supasundae and Sizing John.
Both nine-year-olds carry the green and yellow silks, with red cap, of the late Ann and Alan Potts.
Both are versatile in terms of optimum distance and are also serious money-making machines.
Supasundae has banked career earnings in excess of €622,000, while Sizing John has won €928,000 and will smash the €1m mark if he wins either the Ladbrokes Dublin Chase next Saturday or Sunday’s Unibet Irish Gold Cup.
Harrington won’t decide on which race until later in the week but if the turf turns towards testing, she may pass on the longer trip.
Rather, she could target the twomiler instead as she seeks to bring the 2017 Gold Cup winner up to race sharpness ahead of another Cheltenham tilt.
Placed behind Douvan twice at the
‘SUPASUNDAE ALWAYS HAS A CHANCE, HE’S VERY CONSISTENT’
Festival, in the Supreme Novices Hurdle (2015) and Arkle Chase (2016), before going up in distance, Sizing John has been off the racecourse for almost 16 months but has been giving Harrington positive signals on the gallops.
Whether he can reclaim the form which saw him hit the Gold Cup treble top at Leopardstown, Cheltenham and Punchestown two years ago remains to be seen.
‘Having had problems with him, I don’t want to go and do something that, in the back of my mind, is not the right thing to do. Running over two miles maybe, and not bottom him out, is certainly an option,’ she said. ‘He was a two-miler when Henry (De Bromhead) had him and saw the backside of Douvan in every race he ran. Let’s hope I can get him there (Cheltenham) in form. He seems to be giving me all the right vibes. You don’t know unless you get out on the racecourse.’
Since Sizing John’s last racecourse appearance, Supasundae has run seven times, and been the model of consistency in the highest hurdling company. His form reads: 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 2nd. Those seven races were all at Grade One level, at distances of two miles, two and a half miles, and three miles.
The two wins were over the mini- mum trip in the most prestigious hurdles on Irish turf, the Irish Champion Hurdle and the Punchestown Champion Hurdle.
It’s no surprise that his durability, competitiveness and versatility find favour with Harrington.
‘He’s a wonderful horse and his record last year (2018) was amazing. How many horses even run in a breadth of races like that, never mind do so well? He is a superstar. He’s a nine-year old now and maybe this is his last year at this level.
‘In hindsight at Cheltenham last year, I should have run him in the Champion Hurdle because the ground caught him out in the Stayers two days later. He just doesn’t like it when it’s tacky like that.’
Supsaundae has always found Apple’s Jade too slick too handle and is likely to run into Gordon Elliott’s classy mare in Saturday’s Irish Champion Hurdle as she drops back to two miles.
‘If they go a good gallop, Supasundae’s got a chance. He’s so consistent. Look what he did last year, he ran in so many Grade Ones.’
While Sizing John will be aimed for the Gold Cup, all being well, Harrington will weigh up the options for Supsaundae before committing to a specific Cheltenham target.
After Supasundae’s close second to Penhill in the Stayers’ last March, the longer trip would appear ideal, but the flying grey has plenty of gears for a shorter trip, if given a clear run, which wasn’t the case behind Sharjah at Leopardstown last month.
‘In the Champion Hurdle, we all thought Buvuer D’Air was invincible, but he was beaten at Kempton. There is talk about Brain Power coming back over hurdling while Sharjah has been winning over here on good ground. It depends on how the race (Champion Hurdle) is stacking up. We’ll see what turns up and keep our options open.’
Should Supasundae go for the Champion Hurdle, it would represent a fifth different race in successive Festivals – no wonder, Harrington loves the cut of his jib.
For the moment, Harrington will play a waiting game. As she says, she’s there for the long haul.