Welcome to Cleeve Racing's 2020 Jumps Ten to Follow.Cdr

Cleeve Racing's 2020 Jumps Ten to Follow Contents

Welcome to Cleeve Racing's 2020 Jumps 1 Ten to Follow

How to Set Up Your Free ATR Tracker 2

Captain Guinness 3

Latest Exhibition 5

Minella Indo 7

Easywork 9

Your Darling 11

The Big Getaway 13

Eric Bloodaxe 15

Third Time Lucki 16

Abacadabras 17 Welcome to Cleeve Racing's 2020 Jumps Ten to Follow

These lists are primarily designed to whet your appetite for the coming season and a to have a bit of fun, it is extraordinarily difficult to make long range forecasts about horses, never mind the weather! We have tried to avoid the more obvious choices like Envoi Allen, Shishkin, Epatante and Al Boum Photo, and have instead gone for some that seem on the face of it to be a bit darker… although all of them could easily turn out to be top class! It is very hard to be confident about which 2021 Festival targets horses will be aimed at but we have tried to avoid those that are declared for multiple events and have come up with horses that are currently quoted at double figure prices for the races we think they are most likely to line up for. Why not set all ten up in a free tracker, there are plenty available and you'll get an email sent to you every time one is due to run so you can watch how they develop over the season. If you don't know, don't worry I'll tell you in the next section how to do it… it's dead easy! Anyway, we hope that you enjoy our guide and that it brings plenty of enjoyment and hopefully a few winners over the season.

Best of luck, The team at Cleeve Racing

Go to www.attheraces.com and either login to your account or register if you don't have an account. You can register for free and it]'s quick and easy to do.

Once you are logged in click on the 'pair of binoculars' icon in the top right hand corner… this will take you to the ATR Tracker page.

Click on 'search for horse' and add the name of the ﬁrst horse in our Ten to Follow list.

You will see that the horse you have just searched for has now been added to your list, now repeat for each horse in the list until you can see they have all been added.

You will receive an email every time one of them is due to run to the email address you registered with…

ENJOY!

Age - 5yo (19 Apr 2015 b g)

Trainer - Henry de Bromhead

Sex - Gelding

Sire - Arakan

Owner - Declan Landy

Captain Guinness starts our list and looks to be one of the most compelling ones to follow. He is relatively unexposed with just three runs under his belt and they all came in his first season over timber as a novice hurdler. He looks open to plenty of improvement this coming season, especially if the transition to fences has the desired effect and is very much one to keep on the right side during the campaign. Providing all goes to plan with him, the Arkle Novices' Chase will be his main season target. Having looked at the early ante-post markets, Henry De Bromhead's star youngster looks very decent value at odds of 20/1. A lightly raced five-year-old, he proved himself to be a horse with bundles of potential going forward with the ability to develop into a genuine Grade One contender for connections. He made his debut at Navan over 2 miles and was somewhat overlooked in the betting market being allowed to go off 20/1 and the outsider of the field. However he easily defied his double-digit odds with an authoritative seven-length success. He jumped safely throughout and showed a good turn of foot in soft ground to go clear from the runner-up Belfast Banter, with the remainder of the field well beaten in behind. His next stop was in the Grade Two Moscow Flyer Novice Hurdle at Punchestown where he was a creditable second to Gordon Elliott's star Andy Dufresne. He still looked far from the finished article that day, being keen early and looking rather green. Having pulled his way to the front at the half-way stage, Rachael Blackmore was left with no other option other than to let her mount do things the hard way on the front end, but to his ultimate credit, he showed plenty of tenacity to make Andy Dufresne work extremely hard to get the better of him. The pair had a terrific duel over the final obstacle with Captain Guinness only going down by ¾ lengths at the finish, with a yawning 15 lengths back to the third.

On his next outing Captain Guinness lined-up for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham Festival and was the subject of some pre-race support which saw him go off the 14/1 clear ﬁfth favourite. Held-up mid-division, he was still travelling noticeably strongly and making eye-catching ground approaching three out until suffering interference caused by Asterion Furlonge diving to his right. Despite that, he was still able to travel as well as anything just behind the leaders going down to two out before having nowhere to go when the horse right in front of him Elixir D'ainay suffered a heavy fall and in turn, brought down Captain Guinness, who was right in behind. That was rather frustrating, but it might be a blessing in disguise for his longer-term ambitions. Based on his Moscow Flyer performance, he looks like he stays 2½ miles well so the JLT will also be an option. Whichever race awaits him at the 2021 Festival he will have a real chance to put his luckless run in the Supreme behind him. The Irish have farmed the Arkle in recent years, providing 5 of the last 6 winners and Captain Guinness can make a bold bid to emulate stars like Un de Sceaux, Douvan and Footpad and last year's winner Put The Kettle On. Update: Captain Guinness was pulled up early in his Beginners Chase when sent off as the odds on favourite, there is no news as to why so a watching brief is recommended.

Age - 7yo (10 Mar13 b g)

Trainer - Paul Nolan

Sex - Gelding

Sire - Oscar

Owner - Toberona Partnership

One horse in particular put Paul Nolan's stable back on firmly back on the map last season, namely Latest Exhibition - who quickly developed into one of Ireland's best novice staying hurdlers and he certainly has the potential to become a real star for connections in years to come when sent chasing. His novice campaign saw four wins and three second placed efforts from seven starts all against top-class opposition, and there is every reason to believe this promising seven-year-old will be a force to be reckoned with when he goes over fences this season and if everything develops according to plan who's to say he won't be one of the leading Gold Cup fancies in 2022. In the races that Latest Exhibition finished second, he lost little in defeat, with the last of those coming in the Grade One Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle, for which the ground was by far the quickest he had encountered, but he overcame that question mark with an titanic duel up the home-straight with Fury Road and the eventual winner Willie Mullins-trained Monkfish who just got the better of him in one of the finishes of the week. He is a typically battle-hardened horse, who wears his heart on his sleeve, and with all things considered, I can envisage Latest Exhibition emulating his Grade One hurdles form when campaigned over fences. Latest Exhibition jumps very effectively, travels well and can knuckle down and show plenty of courage if he needs to battle. And it's great to see Latest Exhibition helping Gold Cup winning rider Bryan Cooper to resurrect his career last season after losing the number one role at Gigginstown and first pick of Alan Pott's horses, this horse might just emulate his blue riband victory aboard Don Cossack.

Paul Nolan will very much target him at next year's RSA Novices' Chase and his current odds of around 16-1 look very attractive indeed. He looks the type to keep on improving, especially with a set of fences put in front him and given his professionalism and mentality he has demonstrated he can handle the big occasions. The level of form he's shown to date, his ability to act on all types of ground and his undoubtedness toughness means he's a must for our horses to follow this campaign and Latest Exhibition certainly has claims to be one of, if not, Ireland's leading novice staying chaser this season.

Age - 7yo (18Apr 13 b g)

Trainer - Henry De Bromhead

Sex - Gelding

Sire - Beat Hollow

Owner - Barry Maloney

Minella Indo representing one of Ireland's leading stable's, Henry De Bromhead. He is a clear example of a consistent top-class chaser with Festival winning form. Minella Indo showed he was a top-class novice hurdler finishing second behind the Willie Mullins-trained Allaho when stepped up to 3 miles for the first time in a Grade Three at Clonmel. However, he burst onto the scene by winning the Grade One Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle at the 2019 Festival. He wasn't really fancied in what looked a decent renewal, but he proved his odds of 50/1 to be all wrong and in the process reversed form with the Willie Mullins horse to stay on strongly and prevail by two- lengths on his first visit to Prestbury Park. He gained a huge amount of experience that day and looked much improved for that run when he cemented himself to be one of the leading staying novice hurdlers of the season by completing the Cheltenham and Punchestown Group One double with an authoritative victory in the Irish Daily Mirror Novice Hurdle at Punchestown's Festival confirming his superiority over Allaho. The stayers novice chase division looked particularly strong last year, but Minella Indo confirmed himself to be the one of the best of the Irish bunch. He finished second to Laurina in his first attempt over an inadequate trip, then opened his account in a Beginners chase at Navan where he was sent off 2/5 favourite. Initially, I felt that he wasn't that impressive but his accurate assured jumping saw him win the race with a bit more in hand than the 1 ½ length winning margin over Captain CJ suggested that day and after watching back a few times it had the look of a perfect prep before heading into open class.

Lining up as a strongly fancied second favourite for the RSA, he was only collared in the shadow of the post by the unbelievable late run of Champ, but despite being beaten I thought that was a performance out of the top-drawer considering he raced keenly throughout against arch rival Allaho matching strides at most fences. It had the look of an repeat of their Albert Bartlett clash twelve months earlier, but Minella Indo gained the upper hand and looked to have the race at his mercy when he blundered at the last losing momentum and the race itself. Minella Indo seemed to relish every yard of that 3 miles and was actually coming back at the winner as the line approached. With another year on his back and more experience he can prove himself to be a very lively outsider for the Gold Cup especially over an extra 2 furlongs and is of some interest at the current odds of 14/1, given that Minella Indo has yet to reach his full potential having ran just three times over fences so far, we can expect him to be and he will make a bold showing in all the major 3 mile plus staying chase races this season for sure. On his season return, Minella Indo ran over an inadequate 2m7f but was able to cruise home by 25 lengths. "I'm delighted with him, Rachael gave him a brilliant ride," De Bromhead said. "He looked sharper than a couple of his runs last year. He's needed his previous ﬁrst runs, although they were over two and a half miles, which he doesn't have the pace for. He was cut to 8/1 for the Gold Cup.

Age - 6yo (23May14 b g)

Trainer - Gordon Elliott

Sex - Gelding

Sire - Network

Owner - Gigginstown House Stud

Without a doubt, to my mind one of the most underrated novice hurdlers from last season was the Gordon Elliott trained Easywork , who developed into one of Ireland's top middle-distance novice hurdler Ireland had to offer, underlined by his fine second placed effort behind Envoi Allen in the Ballymore Novices Hurdle. He could only manage third on his course debut back in February, but made good use of that experience when comfortably going two places better with an impressive 9 ½ length-victory at Down Royal on heavy ground. He made his hurdles debut at Gowran Park when jumping well and travelling smoothly, his bare winning-margin of 1 ½ lengths didn't do any justice to the fluent performance Easywork produced beating the well-regarded Mount Leinster with over 20 lengths back to the third. Significant improvement than followed where with a step up to 2m4f he blitzed his four rivals by 22 lengths. Easywork than tasted his first defeat at the hands of Willie Mullins's Asterion Forlonge, but given that was his first attempt at Grade One level he still showed plenty of promise, His final race of the season saw him line up in the Ballymore at Cheltenham. Sent off 12/1, Easywork raced keenly throughout the 2m5f contest, and having tracked The Big Getaway for the majority of the race, initially, I thought he was going to weaken out of contention when they quickened, but to his credit, he stayed on really well and was only beaten around 4 ¼ lengths by Envoi Allen… and even seemed to have the winner in trouble for a moment as they turned for home. There is a strong possibility that he could have been even closer if he'd settled better, and considering it was only his second start at the highest level we can expect more improvement to come this season.

He's such a ﬂuent jumper that my reckoning he will be a serious force over fences this season with the JLT probably his most likely Festival option, but saying that a well- run Arkle could also suit… but whatever happens he'll be looking to avoid Envoi Allen!

Age - 5yo (21Apr15 b g)

Trainer - Ben Pauling

Sex - Gelding

Sire - Shirocco

Owner - Lord & Lady Vestey

After enjoying a fantastic start to his career, it's fair to say trainer Ben Pauling hasn't enjoyed the best couple of years. In 2017 Willoughby Court who was his first Festival winner taking the JLT, died after surgery at the start of the following season. That loss was softened when Le Breuil won the National Hunt chase in 2019, but last season his star novice chaser Bright Forecast was found to be suffering from a fibrillating heart, and Le Breuil, who disappointed at the Festival when favourite for the Kim Muir missed out on being the yard's first Grand National runner when it was cancelled due to the pandemic. On the other hand, Ben has made a bright start since racing resumed and he could just have another top-class novice hurdler to go to war with this campaign named Your Darling , who must be followed having run just twice in NH flat races.

He's a big-raw sort with “chaser” written all over him, but it's his debut victory at Newbury when beating Flinteur Sacre (a full-brother to Sprinter Sacre) that should be acknowledged and his performance can even be marked up given how keenly he raced prior to winning in authoritative fashion by 3 ¼ lengths.

Following on from that impressive debut, Your Darling drew plenty of praise from former trainer Henrietta Knight who was involved with developing him and she said “He's the best I've had since Best Mate, I think he could be top class, and I know the family well" Knight further said. “We had a hell of a job to get him. I knew he was good. I am excited by this horse”

Your Darling was quoted as one of the leading fancies for the Champion Bumper but connections decided to bypass the Festival and run him at Warwick where he was sent off hot 4/6 favourite, but he was pulled up at an early stage which was probably down to the fact that the stable were completely wrong at the time and he clearly wasn't the horse we saw at Newbury.

Your Darling is expected to take high rank among the novice hurdle division despite his career being aimed at a set of fences and he has already reportedly schooled exceptionally well.

Age - 6yo (08May4 b g)

Trainer - Willie Mullins

Sex - Gelding

Sire - Getaway

Owner - Mrs J Donnelly

Envoi Allen led the 2 1/2 mile novice hurdle division last season, winning at the Cheltenham Festival in the Ballymore Novices' Hurdle. He would be too obvious a one for our list of horses to follow, but the horse who finished third that day at Cheltenham jumped straight on to my radar, namely the Willie Mullins-trained The Big Getaway, who possibly didn't get all the recognition he deserved. He is well named being a massive son of Getaway and he must still be growing into his frame. He started life in a NH Flat races finishing second twice, but both races have worked out extremely well with the winners Fury Road going on to finish third in Albert Bartlett and Fiddlerontheroof winning the Grade One Tolworth Hurdle. His hurdles campaign kicked off at Leopardstown over 2m4f but he was beaten when sent off the strong 11/10 favourite. He raced far too keenly in the early stages, but still looked the winner jumping the last only to make a complete mess of it on the landing side, which knocked the stuffing out of him and caused him to lose all momentum. Nearly a month passed before his second start and he made no mistake making all the running to score by 17 widening-lengths at Naas looking a much more fluent jumper. His final race was in the Grade One Ballymore Novices' Hurdle and it saw him improve markedly when beaten just 8 lengths in finishing 3rd behind arguably the horse of the season; Envoi Allen and another horse on our list; Easywork. He cut out most of the running on the front-end but still looked a bit novicey over his hurdles but looked to be going best of all jumping the third last hurdle with the eventual first and second being niggled along. His lack of an turn of foot saw him drop back to third over the final flight, but he stayed on well up the stiff uphill finish.

I am mindful of the fact that the novice chase division looks potentially very high- class this season but this six-year-old has the credentials to reach the very top. He has proved he is effective with plenty of cut but should also act on decent ground with his optimum trip looking like 2m4f with a a good chance of staying 3 miles so he should develop into a strong contender for races such as the Marsh or the RSA, for which he is priced up as a 16/1 chance and 20/1 respectively.

Age - 5yo (22Mar15 bl g)

Trainer - Joseph O'Brien

Sex - Gelding

Sire - Saint Des Saints

Owner - Gigginstown House Stud

I am a huge fan of the Joseph O'Brien trained Eric Bloodaxe , he won his first two bumper races impressively, so it was a real shame connections had to bypass the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival with what was, on the face of it, a disappointing run on his final start… but it was reported by connections that he finished lame and the way he went from travelling strongly out to dropping out in the space of half a furlong explains that. Nevertheless, this giant long-striding horse has plenty of ability and potential to reach the top of the staying novice hurdle division, that is clearly supported on his defeat of Ferny Hollow which was in no small way franked when that one went on to win the Champion Bumper in authoritative fashion at the Festival. That gives us an indication of just how good Eric Bloodaxe.a key-player in the Festival Bumper had he been given the chance to run. The fact connections decided to give him plenty of time to recover and ended his campaign could reap big rewards and it will be intriguing to see how Eric Bloodaxe is campaigned over hurdles because based on his size, scope and pedigree, we can expect him to be a long-term staying type. I would be more optimistic about him turning up in the Ballymore than the Supreme at the 2021 Cheltenham Festival and his odds of 50/1 for that look far too big to me… he's well worth following this season.

Age - 5yo (05Mar15 b g)

Trainer - Dan Skelton

Sex - Gelding

Sire - Arcadio

Owner - Mike & Eileen Newbould

The Supreme Novices' Hurdle is a tricky race to evaluate at this early stage, but one horse who is expected to come under the microscope at quoted double-digit odds and is worth following this season is the Dan Skelton-trained Third Time Lucki , who put in a courageous run in defeat in the Champion Bumper, finishing fourth of 23 runners. Third Time Lucki made an eye-catching debut where he finished a close third in a decent bumper at Ascot when he was tenderly handled, he then mopped up two weaker races at Market Rasen and Huntingdon, so on the book he had a very tough task stepping up into a championship race for the first time. But he outperformed his odds of 16/1 comfortably, held up in last place for most of the contest, he seemed to lack the necessary tactical speed turning into the home straight, but kept on well under Harry Skelton's urgings to stay on strongly past all but three talented Irish horses. The time figures underlined that this was a top-class performance in defeat, and he finished best of all the home-trained participants in the race. Given the Festival Bumper's long-time reputation of producing the best first season novice hurdlers, connections will have plenty optimism going forward especially if he can translate his bumper form to obstacles. I can see Third Time Lucki developing into a stayer at some point in his career, but the pace of the Supreme Novices' Hurdle will definitely be a plus for him as he's already given the impression he won't be short of stamina, as well as having plenty of speed, and with all-important course experience under his belt so if he does take up this option, one can assume Third Time Lucki won't be available at his current odds of around 33/1 for too long.

Age - 6yo (15Apr14 b g)

Trainer - Gordon Elliott

Sex - Gelding

Sire - Davidoff

Owner - Gigginstown House Stud

Gordon Elliott hasn't exactly gone under the radar with his high-class novice hurdlers and his long awaited Champion Hurdle ambitions could become a reality this season with one of Ireland's star novice hurdlers of last season… Abracadabras. A a top-class bumper-horse for connections, despite only winning once. He was a bit unlucky when running out at Leopardstown when putting it up to Envoi Allen in a graded bumper His excellent fourth in the 2019 Champion Bumper behind the same horse was followed up by a second in the Irish equivalent behind Colreevy less than two months later, and put the seal on a top class campaign. He made his eagerly awaited hurdles debut in a moderate Maiden Hurdle at Gowran Park, but was visually impressive strolling to a ﬁve-length success. His next assignment was a to step up to a Grade Three event at Navan, but it was arguably a much deeper race than that on paper, even so, he was sent off 9/10 favourite and duly obliged, demonstrating a decisive turn of foot to beat one of our other horses to follow; Latest Exhibition. He was always travelling and jumping well and crept into the race as the pace quickened round the turn for home. He joined the leaders still pretty much on the bridle between the last two ﬂights and took it up jumping the last, quickly putting the race to bed and winning in pretty authoritative fashion from Latest Exhibition.

The form of that race had a lot of substance to it with the runner-up going on to win a Grade One before finishing second in another top-level race at the Cheltenham Festival. His unbeaten record over hurdles came to an end when he stepped up to Grade One company next time out, but he lost little in defeat when getting to within one-length of the superstar Envoi Allen having travelled really well before throwing down a persistent challenge over the last hurdle. The form was exceptionally well- advertised by the winner romping home in the Ballymore and the third home placing in the Champion Hurdle! His fourth career start over hurdles saw him get back to winning ways when comfortably winning the Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown, albeit a couple underperformed. His next assignment was the Supreme and Captain Guinness was not the only unfortunate horse, so was Abadacadabras who found himself in a terrible position after the standing start shuffled to the rear of the field. To his credit, Abacadabras travelled beautifully into the race and was the only one still on the bridle turning for home. He jumped the last clear but seemed to either lose concentration (or maybe the ground was a bit sticky as mentioned beforehand by connections) and was outstayed by Shiskin. But he confirmed himself to be a lethal weapon in a strongly run contest here by clocking a fast time figure, and the way that the Champion Hurdle is normally run will surely play right into his hands next year. Gordon Elliott mentioned soon afterwards that he would stay over hurdles, and with Grade One form, course form, and the way he travels through a race Abacadabras should be a huge player in the feature race on day one. Most firms are offering 10/1 at the moment, and that could look very big in due course.