We're Going For Gold

Tony Keenan previews Leopardstown’s big race and takes a look at Cheltenham prospects

- Tony Keenan

It’s getting close. This time next month, you’ll be reading and thinking about Cheltenham, if you aren’t already doing both.

I feel that excitement for the Festival has taken time to build this season but that is not to take away from a campaign which has been highly entertaining. We’ve had old boys like Cue Card holding their form, the emergence of Thistle crack as a topclass chaser, Gigginstown removing their horses from Closutton and Mullins versus Elliott to be Champion Trainer in Ireland. There has been so much going on that it’s been hard to think of an event months in the future.

But before that we still have some trials to run and the best of them in Ireland are likely to be on Irish Gold Cup day at Leopards town on February 12. Ivanovich Gorbatov and On The Fringe ran on the card last year before going on to Cheltenham success while there is a rich history of horses using the meeting as part of their Festival prep.

There are four Grade 1s on the card starting with the Spring Juvenile Hurdle. The trio of Bapaume, Land of hope and glory and Mega Fortune have been mixing it in graded juvenile hurdles of late and are likely participants with little having been between them over course-and-distance at Christmas. Bapaume came out on top that day but I expected more as he had looked a bit unlucky previously at Fairy house when he made a mistake at the last and was coming off an eight-month break while he was likely helped by Land of hope and glory reverting to the temperamental displays of his flat career.