Ballymore Novices' Hurdle |
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| Cheltenham 12:05 (Registered As The Hyde Novices' Hurdle), £30,000 added, 4yo plus, 2m 5f 26y, Class 1  |
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| Saturday 16th November 2019 | |
1 Thyme Hill 11/8F
2 Champagne Well 5/1
3 Happygolucky 10/1
8 ran Distances: 3l, ¾l, 2l
Time: 5m 22.25s (slow by 33.75s)
A future Festival star?
— CheltenhamRacecourse (@CheltenhamRaces) November 16, 2019
Thyme Hill is a strong winner of the @Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle#TheNovemberMeeting pic.twitter.com/AWA9L1IJpB
Philip Hobbs will plot a course towards The Festival after his number one novice hurdler Thyme Hill followed up last month's win in the Persian War Novices 'Hurdle at Chepstow by beating Champagne Well by three lengths.
The Ballymore Novices ' Hurdle, over an intermediate distance, is the obvious target for him in March, and Hobbs completed that double with Massini ' s Maguire in the 2006/07 season, but on good ground the longer Albert Bartlett Novices 'Hurdle would also come into strong consideration.
In the meantime, next month's G1 Challow Hurdle at Newbury is likely to be on the agenda for the five-year-old, who Hobbs said is more robust than last season but would still not want too much racing.
Hobbs said: " I suppose the obvious race for him is the Challow Hurdle at Newbury, and I should think that ' s where we ' ll be going next. He had a hard race today though, and he ' s not a horse you would want to be running every week. "
He added: " He ' s very much to the fore among my novices. He ' s not the biggest in the world, but he ' s very tough and genuine, and he ' s got a very good outlook. I wasn ' t too concerned about the ground as his best two runs, at Chepstow and The Festival (when third in the G1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper), were on soft ground.
" He ' s very professional and he jumped fantastically well at Chepstow, and very well in the second half of the race here. I think two miles and five is a minimum for him, and if it was good ground here in March we might step up to three miles. "
Ballymore Novices' Hurdle
(Registered As The Hyde Novices' Hurdle) (Grade 2)
£30,000 added, 4yo plus, 2m 5f 26y, Class 1
8 ran
Going: Soft, Heavy in places
1 Thyme Hill 5 11-5 Philip Hobbs Richard Johnson 11/8F
2 3 Champagne Well 6 11-3 Fergal O'Brien Paddy Brennan 5/1
3 ¾ Happygolucky 5 11-0 Kim Bailey David Bass 10/1
8 2 Some Day Soon 6 11-0 Jamie Snowden Gavin Sheehan 12/1
3 14 Born By The Sea 5 11-0 Paul John Gilligan Liam Gilligan 100/1
4 ¾ Dancing On My Own 5 11-0 Henry De Bromhead Aidan Coleman 9/2
7 1½ L'Air Du Vent 5 11-0 Colin Tizzard Robbie Power 14/1
6 8 K Brunel 5 11-0 Olly Murphy A P Heskinn 8/1
