John Ingles provides the Timeform ratings reaction to this week's notable hurdle performances, including 'large P' winners Kopek des Bordes and The New Lion.
KOPEK DES BORDES 154P > 159p
Anyone who thought Kopek des Bordes’ odds-on success in the opening Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, run this year in memory of Michael O’Sullivan, was going to set the tone for a succession of ‘good things’ to hose up over the following four days was in for a rude shock. But Willie Mullins and Paul Townend – who ended the Festival as leading trainer and jockey again, with ten and four winners respectively – at least began the week meeting many punters’ expectations.
Having just his fourth start and only his third over hurdles, Kopek des Bordes was the pick on form after his 13-length rout of a Grade 1 field at the Dublin Racing Festival which had earned him Timeform’s ‘large P’ symbol. While he kept his unbeaten record, he had to work hard to do so as his lack of experience means he’s still something of a work in progress.
Fitted with a hood for the first time, he nonetheless took a while to settle, helped to do so by the good pace, and his jumping, which had looked to require some work on his debut, was still only adequate here. But quickening ahead in the straight, he overcame a less than fluent jump at the last to win ridden out by a length and three quarters from William Munny, the winner of a listed novice at Punchestown on his previous start.
Kopek des Bordes is already verging on high-class form over hurdles and he has the physique to make a chaser when the time comes. He became Mullins’ eighth winner of the Supreme, thirty years after Tourist Attraction provided his trainer with his very first Festival winner in the same contest. Among Mullins’ other Supreme winners, only Douvan (168 in 2015), Champagne Fever (165 in 2013) and Appreciate It (160 in 2021) have earned a higher rating from the race.
GOLDEN ACE 143 > 146
There might have been only seven runners in the Champion Hurdle field, the same number as two years ago when it had been the smallest field since 1974, but with three top-class contenders, including the last couple of winners Constitution Hill and State Man, the one-two from 2023, locking horns again, and the mare Brighterdaysahead, herself beaten only once in ten starts, taking them on, it raised the possibility that the race might throw up a special performance.
But in an extraordinary race, Constitution Hill crashed out at the fifth, with State Man following suit when five lengths clear at the last and looking all set to follow up last year’ success. Brighterdaysahead was already a spent force by then so couldn’t take advantage and trailed home fourth of the five finishers behind Golden Ace, the mare who’d inflicted her only previous defeat in last season’s Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle. At 25/1, Golden Ace thus became the longest-priced winner of the Champion Hurdle since Hardy Eustace gained the first of his two wins as a 33/1-shot in 2004.
The winner of the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton on her previous start (from Burdett Road, runner-up again here but beaten further this time), Golden Ace has been credited with a little improvement but, even so, she has to go down as one of the lowest-rated Champion Hurdle winners of recent times, around 20 lb below what might be considered ‘normal’ Champion Hurdle-winning form. But she richly rewarded her connections’ decision to take her chance, rather than in the Mares’ Hurdle which was won impressively by Lossiemouth for the second year running with a performance figure of 150 (8 lb below her master rating).
Golden Ace became the seventh mare to win the Champion Hurdle, and five of the last ten editions of the Champion Hurdle have now gone to mares. As well as Golden Ace, those other recent Champion Hurdle-winning mares Annie Power, Epatante and dual winner Honeysuckle had all run in either the Dawn Run or the Mares’ Hurdle at previous Festivals – something for those still questioning the place of the mares’ hurdles at the meeting to ponder on!
THE NEW LION 143P > 156p
The New Lion completed a double for Timeform’s ‘large P’ symbol in Cheltenham’s novice hurdles after he came out on top in the Baring Bingham, run this year as the Turners Novices’ Hurdle. The sparingly-used ‘large P’ denotes that a horse is expected to show considerable improvement from its last run. In that respect, The New Lion met those expectations to a greater degree than Kopek des Bordes as he advanced his rating by almost a stone, he too maintaining his unbeaten record and promising to make into a high-class hurdler.
While The New Lion had coasted home in the Challow on his previous start, the bare form of the Newbury race was no more than useful (runner-up Wendigo was fifth in the Albert Bartlett later in the week), but The New Lion found the necessary improvement at Cheltenham to get the better of The Yellow Clay and Final Demand, they too unbeaten over hurdles and whose form claims beforehand looked slightly stronger. Like Kopeck des Bordes, The New Lion was made to work harder but accomplished his task in gutsy fashion after staying on to lead in the last fifty yards for a three-quarter length win over The Yellow Clay. The New Lion’s pedigree suggests further still would suit (his useful sister Kateira stays three miles) but the way he travels suggests a well-run two miles wouldn’t pose him too many problems.
Foremost among past Baring Bingham winners to have gone on to success in the Champion Hurdle is Istabraq for The New Lion’s new owner J. P. McManus. The New Lion was only the second British-trained winner of the Baring Bingham since 2013, though the Irish pair who chased him home remain good prospects themselves, Final Demand, the least experienced of the trio but also the most imposing, making plenty of appeal over fences next season.
PONIROS 150p
While plenty of short-priced favourites bit the dust during the Festival, there was no bigger shock than Poniros winning the Triumph Hurdle at 100/1 on his debut over hurdles. He did so as one of 11 trained by Willie Mullins out of a field of 17. Seven of those were making their first start for the yard, while the Jonjo O’Neill junior-ridden Poniros was one of three having his first run over hurdles. A remarkable performance by any standards, but Mullins had gone very close to pulling off a similar feat with 66/1-shot Concertista being beaten just a short head on her debut over hurdles in the 2019 Dawn Run.
It wasn’t as if the Triumph looked there for the taking, either, as the well-backed 5/4 favourite East India Dock had set a good standard beforehand while Lulamba, another ‘large P’ horse, had shown plenty of promise on his British debut. Poniros, by Golden Horn (also the sire of Champion Hurdle winner Golden Ace, as well as East India Dock), brought some useful Flat form to the table, however.
Sold out of Ralph Beckett’s stable for 200,000 guineas at the Horses In Training Sale last autumn, he’d finished down the field as favourite in the Cambridgeshire when last seen, and while he failed to add to a debut success in a Nottingham maiden at two, the pick of his handicap efforts last year came when second in the London Gold Cup at Newbury.
Poniros was perhaps helped by others taking each other on from some way out in the Triumph, but there wasn’t a total pace collapse and the top two in the market still ran him close, with Poniros winning by a neck and three quarters of a length from Lulamba and East India Dock. Indeed, the winner’s time compares well with the following County Hurdle, coming home faster too off a quicker pace. Aintree and/or Punchestown would give Poniros the opportunity to prove this was no one-off, though connections mentioned the Ascot Stakes back on the Flat as the aim.
More from Sporting Life
- Racecards
- Fast results
- Full results and free video replays
- Horse racing news
- Horse racing tips
- Horse racing features
- our free iOS and Android app
- Football and other sports tips
- Podcasts and video content
Safer gambling
We are committed in our of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.
