After a sensational weekend of racing, Matty Sutcliffe had much to ponder from a 2025 Cheltenham Festival perspective. However, with so many big names reappearing, it is one who we are yet to see this season who may prove value in the biggest race of the week…
Gold Cup – Monty’s Star 20/1 1pt EW 3 places
After a solemn Sunday of National Hunt Racing marred by the passing of Napper Tandy, Bangers And Cash and Abuffalosoldier, the weekend gone was a reminder of just how wonderful this sport can be.
This weekend felt like the proper flag fall of the season. The Betfair Chase was reminiscent of the good ol’ days (I say that as if I’m not 24) of the sport, the gallant old boy in Royal Pagaille battling on past the young pretender in Grey Dawning, who solidified his claims as the UK’s most exciting progressive staying chaser.
There’s an element of whether that race will have left its mark on Grey Dawning, and older readers will be shaking their fists at that suggestion given how hardy the National Hunt horses of the past used to be, but unfortunately as a breed, the current flock are weaker than the previous generation. Cotton wool is the tipple of trainers these days as opposed to longevity, and historically tough sires are a dying breed in itself. Luckily for Grey Dawning fans, he’s by Flemensfirth who typically produces a hardy sort, such as Tidal Bay who won his first graded race in 2007 as a 6yo, and his last in 2013 as a 12yo. I hope Grey Dawning can prove an outlier in the suggestion the breed is physically weaker, and is campaigned like a staying chaser of yesteryear.
In terms of a Gold Cup contender, I still believe Grey Dawning has the ability to show up well in March, but it’s impossible to deny the gulf in class between the Irish horses and ours is massive, particularly this season.
That leads me on nicely to the John Durkan. Even for a race that’s been steeped in prestigious chasers in the highest of echelons in the National Hunt game, Sunday’s renewal was a glorious spectacle in prospect – the returning two-time Gold Cup winner in Galopin Des Champs, his old foe Fastorslow, the new kids on the block of Brown Advisory winner Fact To File and Punchestown Champion Novice winner Spillane’s Tower, not forgetting Grade 1 winner Grangeclare West, Kim Muir/ Mildmay winner Iknowthewayurthinkin, Sandown Gold Cup winner Minella Cocooner, and Fairyhouse G2 winner Journey With Me. A combined seventeen Grade 1s had been won between them, and it proved to be the race of the season.
Galopin Des Champs filled the same spot in the race as he did last season, though arguably enhanced his claims for an historic third Gold Cup, but it was last season’s star novices who fought out the finish in Fact To File and Spillane’s Tower. The first four home currently fill the first four places in the ante-post market for the Gold Cup in March and it’s hard to to envisage the winner won’t come from the first three (though I’d personally have Galopin Des Champs as the market leader), but their prices are unlikely to rise at this stage and from a value perspective, MONTY’S STAR could be the forgotten one.
Henry De Bromhead has always held this son of Walk In The Park in high regard, and has already signalled the Gold Cup as this season’s aim. His handler knows exactly what it takes to land a Gold Cup, having won it in 2022 and 2021 with A Plus Tard and Minella Indo, with the pair each following the other home in their respective victories. Henry De Bromhead had Jungle Boogie run an excellent race in 6th last season, with it his third run from a 708 day layoff, and he also had Monalee finish a one-length fourth in the race in 2020.
Barry Moloney owned both Minella Indo and Monalee, and he’ll be hoping the latter’s half-brother can go three places better this season. Monty’s Star has always threatened to be a staying chaser, finishing second to Stay Away Fay in a Lingstown point in 2021, and for all he picked up Grade 3 honours over three miles at Clonmel as a hurdler, he never quite respected the lower obstacles as demonstrated when pulling up in the Albert Bartlett.
He returned last December with a three lengths third to Corbetts Cross over an inadequate 2m5f miles in a Beginners Chase at Fairyhouse, with the winner going on to take the National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham, before finishing an excellent two lengths seconds to Gerri Colombe in the Grade 1 Bowl at Aintree. That race at Fairyhouse has been contested by the likes of I Am Maximus, Monkfish, Any Second Now and The Storyteller in recent seasons, generally throwing up a smart stayer.
Monty’s Star then won at Punchestown in deep ground on his second start over fences, pulling five lengths clear of the 4/11F Three Card Brag, and he put up a career best performance when second to Fact Or File in the Browns at Cheltenham, beaten three lengths though staying on strongly as if the extra two furlongs of a Gold Cup will undoubtedly suit. The Brown Advisory has a habit of throwing up subsequent Gold Cup contenders, not least Gerri Colombe who was second in both events, and Minella Indo, who went one place better than his second in the RSA in 2020. Santini is also on that list of honours, as is Monalee, Might Bite and Don Poli.
Monty’s Star finished last season with a 3/4L second to Spillane’s Tower at Punchestown, and that form was franked when Mangan’s horse was just touched off in the John Durkan on Sunday. We likely won’t see him come out until next month, but given the form he has as a novice with Spillane’s Tower and Fact To File, he looks a solid ante-post price in comparison to those two who are 11/4 and 8/1 respectively.
He strikes me as one to improve massively from his novice season as he was still quite raw, unsurprisingly given his half brother Monalee had a similar profile. Whether he has the speed to quicken past his old foes in the Gold Cup remains to be seen, and he’s possibly a Grand National horse in time, but certainly from an each way perspective it’s hard not to envisage him plugging on up the hill and if any of the novices from last season are crying out for those extra two furlongs, it’s undoubtedly Monty’s Star for connections who know exactly what it takes to be victorious in the crown jewel of National Hunt Racing.
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