ANTHONY COSGRIFF

Weblog:  Chasing Cheltenham glory from Down Under

Proud of historic
effort at Ayr

LOOK, none of us go racing to come fourth, that's not what it's about.  But I must say I was extremely proud of Onajet's effort to come  fourth of 14 at Ayr in his first effort over UK hurdles. 

Having jumped adequately throughout, the big lad looked a winning chance at the top of the straight before a couple of his fancied rivals injected an extra burst of pace and exposed him for what he is: a very genuine horse without a fifth gear.  However after being left flat-footed, Onajet rallied again for Brian Harding near the line and ultimately wasn't far off regaining third.  We finished 10 lengths from the winner, but beat the sixth horse by nearly 20 lengths, so it was not hard to find positives about this first effort, especially having come 10,000 miles, and travelled from summer to not-so-summer weather.

I am sure Onajet will benefit enormously for this spin over proper hurdles, and that run was really just a pipe-opener for stepping out over two and a half miles, a distance which is sure to suit him a lot better.  Ground a bit softer than today's good, good to firm in places, would also help him a lot, although having walked the track at Ayr I can state categorically that it would have been rated a Dead 5 in Australia.  (What we would call Good you would call the M6, and frankly I'm glad to be away from that kind of surface for a while!)

So Onajet could run well above this form next time out over further, but as for the Festival, he will surely be outclassed there.  Of course we've paid up this far to enter him and we've come 10,000 miles, so if he was any chance of being competitive, even at a huge price, then I would still be all for going.  But to have him run around and get beaten miles and waste a run he could have in a very suitable race . . . well it's probably not wise and not fair to the horse who, after all, only came over as a companion.  I'll still be over the moon to be down at Cheltenham next week and with no saddling duties I can relax all the more. 

In any case, yesterday's effort from Onajet already makes him - I believe - the first ever Australian-trained racehorse to run in Scotland, so sports trivia buffs mark the name down!

It also brings home to us that we really were not far off the mark in coming over with Gorge.  Gorge indeed does have a fifth gear (and in suitable conditions a Knight-rider-like turbo boost) and he had taken to the UK hurdles brilliantly, all of whichplaces him a long, long way ahead of Onajet.

So I‘m off to have another swear . . . but I'm still looking forward to next week, big-time!