© Photo Healy Racing
Lavender Hill Mob suffered a shock reverse on his jumping debut, finishing well-beaten behind Inappropriate in the Paul Ferguson’s Jumpers To Follow ‘Introductory’ Juvenile Hurdle at Newcastle.
Seventh in the Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot, the reappearance of Lavender Hill Mob (2-7 favourite) had been eagerly-awaited ever since trainer James Owen mentioned him favourably in post-race dispatches following the runaway Cheltenham success of stablemate East India Dock last month.
It did seem to be going relatively to plan until things started to hot up, and Nico de Boinville’s mount was treading water when the Jedd O’Keeffe-trained Inappropriate (11-2) swept clear on what was both his jumping debut and first run for his new stable after leaving Harry Eustace.
O’Keeffe, who has his small string in good form, said: “We’re very pleased, we decided to have a punt at this race. We won it a few years ago with a horse we bought at the sales (Tavus, 2019) and it was a fairly small field that day so we thought we might get a small field again.
“We thought it was a nice place to start, even if he didn’t win it looked a nice place to introduce him.
“We’ve always liked him a lot at home and his jumping has always been exceptional, there’s a really nice rhythm and shape to the way he jumps and it was the same today.
“We haven’t made any plans, if there’s another race like this, quite valuable, that would be great, but I haven’t really looked beyond today in truth.”
He added: “Juvenile hurdles are different these days, there’s a lot of ex-French in them as the jumps trainers generally can’t compete with the overseas market but we managed to find him, so I’m delighted.”
Skyjack Hijack (10-11 favourite) has been a revelation this season and Jennie Candlish’s charge won for the sixth time in succession in the Weatherbys nhstallions.co.uk ‘The French Furze’ Novices’ Hurdle.
There are few hurdlers in training who get from one side of a hurdle to the other quicker than him and it must be a real thrill for Sean Quinlan riding him.
Adopting usual front-running tactics, Tony Martin’s Zanndabad was the only one to get within hailing distance but he was still beaten nine and a half lengths.
Alan O’Keeffe, Candlish’s partner and assistant, said: “He’s been great, he goes a good gallop and keeps going, jumping is his biggest asset.
“I honestly think the way he jumps he reminds me of a Champion Hurdle horse as he spends not time at all in the air and is very accurate.
“That will be it for a while now as he’s been busy and the ground will start to change. How high can he go? He’s doing everything right but Sean maybe thought he just wasn’t quite as sharp today and he got warm at the start so that indicates he needs a break.
“I wouldn’t expect we’d see him until February time and then Cheltenham comes into the equation. Whether than is handicaps or the Albert Bartlett we’ll see. It takes a fair horse to win six and he’s beaten some decent horses there.”
