Ratings Update: Irving improves and Henderson heroes twinkle

Besides being one of the best meetings of the season, the Open meeting at Cheltenham this weekend serves the secondary role of scooping up the fragments of the jumps season so far and combining them into a linear narrative that takes us up to Christmas: Open, Betfair Chase, Hennessy, Tingle Creek, International, Ladbroke, King George.

We’re ready for the threads to be joined. There was a lot of strong jumps action over the last week, though it came from diverse directions as Exeter on Tuesday and Sandown on Sunday, with some foreign racing thrown in alongside an indicative Saturday at home. Pleasingly different though this structure can be, a whole winter of it would be tiring.

We’ll start at Wincanton, by virtue of it combining high levels of interest and dependability in the form. The Elite Hurdle remains the strongest race on the card and by its nature and positioning in the season often produces one of the better handicap hurdle performances of the year. It’s likely that Irving’s effort on Saturday will be in that conversation after he won convincingly by seven lengths from a BHA mark of 154.

Irving is now rated 162 by Timeform, a career-high for him, though his improvement in form terms may not be as significant as how much stronger he was at the finish. Seeing things out has been Irving’s problem in the past, but after a wind operation over the summer he extended pleasingly on Saturday and it could be that he is following so many chasers from the Nicholls yard and improving well into his career. If that’s the case he’ll be a player in all the Grade 1s this winter up to and including the Champion Hurdle, though it’s unlikely he’ll ever be a match for an on-song Faugheen.

Chasers otherwise held the headlines at Wincanton. In the Rising Stars Novices’ Chase, Junction Fourteen (141p) made the most of his experience and fitness to beat Arpege d’Alene (130p). This renewal mightn’t live up to some other recent ones, though we expect the first two to both reach a smart level of form.

The Badger Ales Trophy proved to be a real slog in testing conditions, to the point that only Drop Out Joe (147) and Royal Palladium (127) really showed their best. Both are improving and the runner-up in particular is unexposed, so expect to see more from them in races that test stamina. Third-placed A Good Skin (138) is also one to look out for when it doesn’t descend into a slog.

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Over at Aintree on Saturday, the main interest came from the new conditions hurdle that brought Simonsig and Bobs Worth back to the track, the former having been off since winning the 2013 Arkle and the latter on the decline since he won the same year’s Gold Cup. They finished first and second, Bobs Worth fending off the strong-travelling Simonsig, though with none of their rivals- including the disappointing Purple Bay- offering us much to compare with we’re left using more guesswork than ideal.

Bobs Worth has been rated 159, better than the rating he achieved in his unbeaten novice season over hurdles, while Simonsig is on 157+, the symbol reflecting how powerfully he moved through the race- racing too freely for his own good at some points. It’s probably a positive reading of the form, though the impression we received is that both look worth trying in Grade 1s again.  

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We wouldn’t be ruling out a return to Grade 1s for Sire de Grugy, either, in spite of downbeat reports (and a reduction of his rating from 168 to 164) following his run in the Haldon Gold Cup. In the strictest terms, we’d agree with trainer Gary Moore’s assertion that he isn’t the horse he was, but it needn’t be by a long way as he travelled strongly for much of last week’s race before shaping as though beaten primarily by a lack of fitness- though admittedly he did stop alarmingly quickly. More pressing concerns have since appeared for Moore, of course, so we wish both him and Sire de Grugy a speedy recovery.

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The other side of Saturday’s action, we saw the reappearance of Champion Hurdle runner-up Arctic Fire (168) in the Lismullen Hurdle at Navan. In truth, he was a fortunate winner as Monksland (156) might have turned him over but for a last-flight error, though the race isn’t one to draw firm conclusions from. It was run at a steady pace which failed to string them out, even by the finish as Taglietelle (149) finished well within range.

Also on the Navan card was the Fortria Chase, which was won by Hidden Cyclone (157x) from Days Hotel (149), with Flemenstar (146+) in third. The last-named hasn’t had a clear run at racing since joining Tony Martin over two years ago but showed enough to suggest he’s worth persevering with, even if he won’t hit previous heights- he was rated 174 at his best.

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Also to report from overseas was the French action over the weekend. The main story for British and Irish fans was success for Thousand Stars (153), who landed his fourth Grade 1 in the Prix d’Automne at Auteuil, edging out the Nick Williams-trained Aubusson and Hippomene (both 151). It’s hard to think of a British or Irish horse better campaigned in France than Thousand Stars, who adds Saturday’s success to his two successes in the Grand Courses des Haies and as many wins in the Prix La Barka.

There was also success in Sunday’s Prix La Haye Jousselin for France’s highest-rated chaser Milord Thomas, who stays on 168.

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The Flat turf season ended on Saturday and we will wrap up here with a short look at Doncaster’s card. In last year’s November Handicap there was an ostensibly Group-class performance from Open Eagle in victory; this year we possibly saw the real thing. Ebor winner Litigant carried a BHA mark of 106 to a convincing four and a half-length success and, though we’ve taken a cautious view often advised by races at the tail-end of the turf season, he still comes out on 121. That makes him worth trying in some lower Group races in 2016 and, even though he’ll be eight then, a bit more improvement can’t be totally ruled out given how lightly-raced he remains, Saturday being just his tenth start overall.