HARRINGTON SET FOR XMAS SPECIAL
JESSICA HARRINGTON, fresh from becoming 2017 Irish Sportswoman of the Year last week, has her star chaser Sizing John geared up for action over Christmas. The 70-year-old trainer has had an exceptional year and hopes to cap it with victory in the Grade One Leopardstown Christmas Chase next Thursday with her Cheltenham Gold Cup winner.
Harrington won the coveted award after winning the blue riband event in March at her first attempt with Sizing John and followed up with her first win in the Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse with Our Duke.
“It’s been an incredible year and I’ve been so lucky,” said Harrington. “Everything came together this year and when it does come together, those things happen. You’ve got to be hopeful that it will keep going. If we weren’t hopeful we’d be no good at all.”
Sizing John trounced Djakadam in the Durkan Memorial Chase at Punchestown on his seasonal debut earlier this month and is likely to face Willie Mullins’ dual Cheltenham ® Festival winner Yorkhill in a bid for a fifth successive Grade One success.
Last year’s winner Outlander is one of six from Gordon Elliott’s yard, while Noel Meade has entered Disko, with Henry de Bromhead’s Valseur Lido and the Joseph O’Brien-trained Edwulf, not been seen since collapsing at the Cheltenham Festival in March.
O’Brien said: “Nothing like what happened at Cheltenham has happened to him again.
“He’s had a couple of good bits of work recently and taken it very well.”
Mullins has kept Faugheen on target for the Ryanair Hurdle at Leopardstown on December 29.
The 2015 Champion Hurdle hero made a spectacular return after two and a half years off the course to win the Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown.
Elliott’s Apple’s Jade could face up to eight rivals in the Squared Financial Christmas Hurdle on the same afternoon as she attempts three miles for the first time.
The brilliant mare claimed her sixth Grade One success when dominating her rivals in the Hatton’s Grace at Fairyhouse earlier this month.