Paul Townend talks Christmas results and this weekend’s rides

Happy New Year. I had a mixed bag ofresults over the Christmas-New Year period and was disappointed that a few gotbeat but there were also plenty of positives to come out of it. I would be willingto give a lot of them a second chance.

AlBoum Photo was the main positive. It wasbrilliant to get him back on track. I couldn’t have been happier with him. Wewould obviously have been very disappointed if he hadn’t have won.

Beinga Grade 3 race he had to give away fair chunks of weight at Tramore. Hetravelled with loads of enthusiasm and jumped brilliantly.

Wedidn’t learn anymore about him there other than that he still has it andhopefully he can build on it for the rest of the season.

Iwas very happy with Kemboy in the Savills Chase. It’s there for everyoneto see that a lot of ours are taking a run. He was in the highest level of raceand ran very well for a long way.

Evenoff the bend, up the straight, he went and joined the horses in front and justgot tired from the last home. There are a lot of positives to take out of thatand he will improve plenty for it.

KlassicalDream was probably the most disappointing ofthem. I suppose he was on a retrieval mission after Punchestown and he just didn’tdo himself a whole lot of justice at Leopardstown either.

Themistake obviously put to bed whatever chance we had, but at that stage of therace I just wasn’t running away anyway and that’s possibly why he made themistake. 

It’sback to the drawing board a little bit with him. Hopefully something will cometo light but he doesn’t seem to be the force he was at this stage last year.

Ithought Chacun Pour Soi travelled like the best horse in his race, andjumped like the best horse. If you stop the race at the second last he isdefinitely odds-on in running. He just got very tired in the straight.

Itwas kind of the story of Christmas for us but I wouldn’t write him off on that.I was very happy with him up to the last furlong, furlong and a half. It wasjust match fitness and it was his first run in open company.

Itwas never happening for Laurina. After jumping two fences you could puta line through her. Bacardys was a bit similar. Apple’s Jade produced anunbelievable performance but I was never comfortable on Bacardys.

Maybethe race at Fairyhouse behind Honeysuckle left its mark a bit more than wethought. We were beaten early.

Thereis a long season left ahead.

Saturday

I amin action at Cork and Naas this weekend.

I start at Cork where Golden Spread (1.25) has a good level of bumper form. The lack of a run is a worry. Ours have been taking a run, especially with this race over three miles around Cork. 

Ifhe is ready enough, I think it is a good opportunity for him. Obviously MinellaEncore, our other runner, isn’t going to be a pushover and he has the benefitof a run.

It’sa nice place to start him off but you would have to bear in mind it’s his firststart of the season.

EscariaTen is open to plenty of improvement and has had a couple of run so could takea bit of beating.

Guard Of Honour (1.55) hasn’t been seen for a long time and it’s his first run for us.

Weare learning about him. He had a high enough rating on the Flat but hasn’t runin a long time. There are a few of these race fit.

Westart him off here to see how he fares. He does things nicely at home butwhatever he does he can only improve for it.

Sunday

I head to Naas on Sunday where my first ride is Good Thyne Tara (12.50). On paper this looks to be a two-horse race. 

Twomiles is probably sharp enough for her but in a beginners’ chase she shouldjump well enough, she’s had a run. It looks between her and Caravation. Areproduction of her first run should see her in the shake-up.

Tornado Flyer (1.20) has the experience. He has won around the track. He made a couple of mistakes on his second run in Navan but he is learning the whole time.

Hemight prefer the ground to be a little slower than what we are going to have.It’s due to be dry for the weekend up to Sunday so if there was a worry itwould be the ground.

Wethought a lot of him as a bumper horse and a novice hurdler and he’s unbeatenover fences so hopefully he can continue that. 

Hehas to give away a bit of weight. It’s not a big field but it’s competitive.You can probably make a case for the majority of them and I think there will beplenty of winners to come out of it.

Asterion Forlonge (2.50) looks a bit of a stayer. Naas is a testing enough track, albeit the ground will be good.

Hejumps well at home. He’s had a run in a bumper for us and hopefully that willbenefit him. We would be hoping to get his hurdling career off to the bestpossible start.

Paul