Horse of the Day

IT’S ON THE LINE — BY DOMINIC KING

THE St James’s Place Hunters’ Chase doesn’t get the headlines that other races at the Festival do but you should take the time to watch this contest, which follows the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Run over the same three and a quarter miles, it frequently makes compelling and dramatic viewing and this year’s race could be one of the best yet. it features a clash between two flourishing irish horses. Ferns Lock is trained by David Christie, who is due some luck at Cheltenham, having not been able to run his horse 12 months ago and losing out by a whisker in this race two years ago with Winged Leader.

He might have to settle for being the supporting act again, though, as confidence is growing in its On The Line, who is trained by Emmet Mullins, owned by JP McManus and will be ridden by Derek O’Connor, an amateur in name only. O’Connor delivered the ride of the Festival so far when producing inothewayurthinkin to win the last race yesterday and he will relish his chance on a horse whom McManus only bought two weeks ago. Mullins, nephew of Cheltenham centurion Willie, is one of the game’s deep thinkers. He spends idle moments playing mind-training games on his phone and is always looking to squeeze out more improvement from his runners. Mullins has certainly had his work cut out with its On The Line. Plenty of judges felt he looked laboured when winning his most recent race at Naas by a head.

But Mullins said: ‘it’s hard to say whether he has had a hard race because he doesn’t do a stroke. To have a hard race i’d say you’d have to be at the end of your tether — and he wasn’t. Half the battle in these races is having the right jockey, and we’ve got the right jockey.’