Can Minella Indo defend the Cheltenham Gold Cup?

Rachael Blackmore took most of the headlines at the 2021 Cheltenham Festival, becoming the first woman to win the Champion Hurdle, on Honeysuckle, and the first woman to win the Ruby Walsh Trophy, presented to the leading jockey at the meeting. However, in the ‘Blue Riband’ event itself, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Blackmore and her mount, A Plus Tard, were usurped by lesser-fancied stablemate Minella Indo, ridden by Jack Kennedy, who stayed on gamely to win by 1¼ lengths.

In fairness, Minella Indo had looked a desperately unlucky loser in the 2020 RSA Insurance Novices’ Chase at the 2020 Cheltenham Festival, where he was unable to withstand an extraordinary finishing effort from Champ, who made up fully 8½ lengths from the final fence. After two easy wins at Wexford and Navan at the start of the 2020/21 season, Minella Indo had fallen before halfway in the Savills Chase and finished only fourth of five in the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup, both at Leopardstown, en route to the Cheltenham Festival.

However, the form of his Cheltenham Gold Cup win looks pretty solid, with previous dual winner Al Boum Photo only third, beaten 5½ lengths, and a yawning 24-length gap back to the 2018 winner, Native River, in fourth place. Minella Indo has done all his winning on good to soft, or softer, going, so unseasonably warm weather would not be in his favour. That would appear to be his only negative and, while he has the feted novice Monkfish to contend with this time around, he fully deserves his position at the head of the ante-post market.

Which were the top three two-mile hurdlers in 2020/21?

According to Timeform, Honeysuckle (165) put up the best performance of the season in the two-mile hurdling division when winning the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, impressively, by 6½ lengths from Sharjah (164). Abacadabras (159) fell at the third flight in the Champion Hurdle, but proved no match for Honeysuckle in the Irish Champion Hurdle or the Punchestown Champion Hurdle on either side of that mishap.

In receipt of a 7lb mares’ allowance – controversially so, in the eyes of more than one learned observer – Honeysuckle carried all before her, winning four times at Grade 1 level to extend her unbeaten sequence to twelve races under Rules. The closest she came to being beaten was in the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle, over 2 miles 4 furlongs, at Fairyhouse in November on her reappearance; she won, for the second year running, but only just did enough to beat Ronald Pump and Beacon Edge by half a length and a neck.

Sharjah is, without doubt, a very smart hurdler and comfortably won the Matheson Hurdle at Leopardstown over Christmas, for the third year running, before tackling Honeysuckle at the major festivals on both sides of the Irish Sea in the spring. Henry de Bromhead’s mare took his measure on all three occasions, by 19 lengths at Leopardstown in February, 6½ lengths at Cheltenham in March and 2¼ lengths at Punchestown in April, but Sharjah lost little or nothing in defeat.

Like Sharjah, Abacadabras, who went down by just a head to Shishkin in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at the 2020 Cheltenham Festival, is clearly no slouch. In 2020/21, he managed to avoid Honeysuckle and/or Sharjah on just three of his seven starts, but won two of them, both at Grade 1 level. After a less-than-stellar start to the campaign, when turned over at odds-on at Down Royal on his reappearance in late October, he edged out Saint Roi and Jason The Militant in the Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown two weeks later for his first Grade 1 win of the season. The following April, he once again demonstrated very smart form when always doing enough to win the Aintree Hurdle with more in hand than the 1¼-length winning margin might suggest.

Which were the top three juvenile hurdlers in 2020/21?

Juvenile hurdlers are those that are three years of age at the start of the National Hunt season but, obviously, turn four years of age on New Year’s Day. Thus, juvenile hurdle races are restricted to three-year-olds before January 1 and, thereafter, to four-year-olds. According to Timeform, the top three juvenile hurdlers in 2020/21 were Monmiral (151p), Quilixios (146) and, jointly, Jeff Kidder (143) amd Zanahiyr (143).

Owned, in partnership, by Sir Alex Ferguson, Ged Mason and John and Lisa Hales and trained by Paul Nicholls, Monmiral was unbeaten in four starts in 2020/21. Already a winner over hurdles at Auteuil in March, 2020 for previous trainer Francois Nicolle, the Saint des Saints gelding started favourite on all four starts and odds-on on twice. However, he put up his best performance when beating Adagio by 7½ lengths in the Anniversary 4-Y-O Juvenile Hurdle at Aintree in April.

Unlike Monmiral, Quilixios ran at the Cheltenham Festival, where he readily beat Adagio by 3¼ lengths in the Trumph Hurdle to maintain his hitherto unbeaten record. Another former Francois Nicolle inmate, he has previously won his first three starts for new trainer Henry de Bromhead, including the Spring Juvenile Hurdle at Leopardstown, without being seriously challenged. However, he ended the season on a low note when only seventh of eight finishers, beaten 30 lengths, behind Jeff Kidder in the Champion Four Year Old Hurdle at Punchestown.

Jeff Kidder, trained by Noel Meade, rose to prominence when winning the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival at odds of 80/1. However, he proved that performance was no fluke by comprehensively outpointing the hitherto unbeaten Teahuppo in a Grade 2 event at Fairyhouse and narrowly beating Zanahiyr in the aforementioned Champion Four Year Old Hurdle.

A winner of his first three starts for Gordon Elliott, Zanahiyr was transferred to Denise Foster when Elliott began his well-publicised ban a week before the start of the Cheltenham Festival. Nevertheless, the son of Nathaniel was sent off 11/8 favourite for the Triumph Hurdle, but was outpaced approaching the final flight and, although rallying on the run-in, eventually finished fourth, beaten 4¾ lengths, behind Quilixios. He went down fighting, once again, when failing by three-quarters of a length to overhaul Jeff Kidder at Punchestown on his final start.

Is sweating always a bad sign in racehorses?

Is sweating always a bad sign in racehorses? Generally speaking, sweating in racehorses is a good sign insofar as it helps to regulate body temperature. The evaporation of sweat, which is 90% water, creates a cooling effect, known as evaporative cooling, which lowers the body temperature. Of course, racehorses have a thick, waterproof, hairy coat, so their sweat contains a protein, known as latherin, which accelerates the transfer of sweat from the skin to the surface of the hair. When subject to friction, from girths, reins, etc, latherin can cause foaming, or lathering, of the sweat. Sweating can also reflect the physical condition of a racehorse. The fitter the horse, the better it becomes at regulating body temperature and the more readily it sweats.

Of course, profuse sweating, particularly if accompanied by other poor behaviour, such as head tossing, rearing or tail swishing, before a race can also be a sign of agitation, excitability or irritation in a racehorse. A racehorse that displays such traits wastes nervous energy and is more likely to pull hard, wasting further energy, once the race is underway, resulting in poor performance. Some horses sweat more than others, even in cooler weather but, as a rule of thumb, any racehorse completely covered and/or dripping with sweat should be treated with caution as a betting proposition.

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