It was said in today's Racing Post that in winning at Down Royal yesterday, Haiti Coulours was winning for the first time at the highest level. I would contend that yesterday's race may have been a Grade 1 steeplechase but it was not of the 'highest level'. He was an impressive winner and I am in no way detracting from his victory but for the phrase 'highest level' to mean anything meaningful it should only be applied to races stacked with Grade 1 proven horses. If Heart Wood had run, at least there would have been two Grade 1 winning chasers in the field. As it was, only Banbridge represented that calibre of horse. The Down Royal Champion Chase represented Haiti Coulours first Grade 1 success, and I remain committed to my argument that there is a world of difference between a genuine Grade I packed with Grade 1 winners and a Grade 1 race competed for by horses not of the 'highest level'. Let's face it, handicappers have been known to win Grade 1 races. A true example of a steeplechase of the highest level was last season's King George at Kempton.
It will be interesting to see how Rebecca Curtis campaigns Haiti Coulours for the rest of the season as he must now be handicappped out of races like the Welsh National and unless Kempton at Christmas provides soft-to-heavy ground you would have to be real optimist to think Haiti Coulours would have the speed to win a King George. Curtis, an undervalued trainer, at least in my opinion, likes a jaunt to Ireland, so perhaps Leopardstown might come into the equation. Personally, given Haiti Coulours seems to run best when fresh, it might be an idea to keep him under wraps until the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Incidentally, pundits and tipsters like to make the call that Haiti Coulours has already proved himself below Grade 1 level, citing his run in the Betfair Chase when he was pulled-up. He had a back problem that day and little can be attributed to him as that run it can be dismissed as a valuation of his true form. He was also pretty lifeless in the Gold Cup last season, so perhaps that is also not a reflection on his true ability.
We will not see the character that is Al Aasy on the racecourse again as he has been retired and will spend his retirement at Shadwell's property in Thetford as companion to Anmaat, though not Battaash as according to Angus Gold 'he terrorises everyone', which, on one level, is good to know.
Billy Loughnane did it again at Keeneland, adding a Breeders Cup to his champion jockeys' title and his 2,000-Guineas, and all before his 21st birthday. What is more, he achieved his breakthrough success at the Breeders Cup by somehow riding at his lowest weight since starting his career. The young man's dedication is an example to everyone with a desire to be a success in sport or any walk of life.
National Hunt, I predict, as in abeyance its very own Billy Loughnane in Mr. Lucas Murphy, son of Timmie. The lad is sixteen, still at school, still studying for his A-levels for the next 12-months, and there he was at Ascot winning a valuable handicap, his first chass success, for Paul Nicholls, no less, on Viroflay, a horse whose main thought before the start was not to start at all. Needless to say once his groom got him to the start, he proceeded to make all the running to take his form to a whole new level. At seventeen, I predict, young Murphy will be stationed at Ditcheat and will be champion conditional by the time he is eighteen. His father was good, his kid might be better.
Did anyone see Harry Skelton yesterday at Wetherby? I have a slight knee problem at the moment, yet I look fitter to ride horses than Skelton did yesterday. To see him walk from the weighing room to the paddock and from the presentation stage back to the weighing room, you would think the resident doctor should have prescribed a mobility scooter or the sort of walking frame the elderly must use to get around the care home. Yet all that is wrong with the champion-jockey-elect is a haematoma on the outside of his leg, caused by falling off on the way to start at Cheltenham last week. Jockeys are made of the right stuff, whatever that stuff may be. Imagine if scientists could define what the right stuff is, the money that could be made. You, too, could have the body of a jockey. Just take a daily dose of jockey juice ...
Finally, the force of nature that is Hollie Doyle won on her comeback ride last night at Southwell. Unfortunately, her big night came to an early conclusion when the meeting was abandoned after the third-race due to heavy fog.