Gigginstown: handicaps could be way forward for Samcro after latest flop

Gigginstown’s Eddie O’Leary has raised the possibility of Samcro going handicapping after his latest Grade 1 flop behind Faugheen in the Matchbook Betting Exchange Novice Chase at Limerick.

Once considered the most exciting horse in training, Samcro has been beaten in his last five Grade 1s and has not managed a top-flight victory since running away with the 2018 Ballymore Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham.

O’Leary believes it’s time to lower expectations over the horse that once promised so much, admitting that those closest to Samcro cannot put their finger on why he is finishing without any spark in his races.

“You can forget the Samcro who we thought was the real deal at one stage, he's not that any more,” O’Leary said.

“Samcro was disappointing again at Limerick and we hope to find something wrong but we probably won't.

“We'll have to probably end up with a handicap mark now as he's going nowhere as a good horse. A good horse, he is not.

“Hopefully he can prove us wrong, but I think we can just forget about him at this stage. As a novice hurdler he was brilliant and he finished his races out brilliantly, but there's something amiss now. Whether he just doesn't want to do it any more or not, I don't know.”

A lot of work has gone into getting Samcro back to his best this season and, after romping home in an early-season beginners' chase, the signs were that Gordon Elliott’s charge was on song again.

Samcro went on to divide opinion when he fell at the second-last in the Drinmore when apparently still travelling well behind the eventual winner Fakir D’Oudairies, but O’Leary believes there would have been only one winner had Samcro stood up at Fairyhouse.

Watch Samcro's latest flop behind Faugheen at Limerick

O’Leary said: “He's going from cruising to empty in his races and, in hindsight, there's not a hope in hell that he'd have beaten Fakir D'Oudairies had he stood up in the Drinmore.

“We were thrilled for the most part at Limerick, as we were when watching the Drinmore, but within two strides he was empty. His work is good, his health is good, everything is good bar how he's finishing his races.

"Don Cossack disappeared for a season and a half. We live in prayer and hope that Samcro can come back as well, but it will take prayer and hope. It ain't simple.”

Asked if he could put his finger on any number of possible reasons why Samcro was failing to fire, O’Leary added: “All last season he didn't scope right.

"We got his wind done this season, built a new stable for him and he'd been scoping great, but he goes and does that again at Limerick. He's doing exactly what he did last term.

"Is he hollow? No, because he finished his races out as a novice hurdler. There's something amiss but we don't know what it is. You've got to face reality at some stage.”

Get ahead of the game with Get Your Eye In - exclusive Saturday preview content on racingpost.com and the Racing Post mobile app from 2pm on Friday