Key quotes as juvenile hurdlers test Cheltenham credentials

Friday: 2.30 Huntingdon
Chatteris Fen Juvenile Hurdle | 2m | 4yo | RTV

It's a fair while since any horse who ran in this race has made an impact at Cheltenham, and the last one to do so did not do it in the Triumph Hurdle.

Sceau Royal, the 2016 winner, ran in the Triumph at single-figure odds but never got competitive, but in 2017 Divin Bere went instead for the Fred Winter, finishing a neck second as favourite before going on to run second to Triumph winner Defi Du Seuil at Aintree.

The 2018 and 2019 runnings were weak, and this one, the first since, does not feature a standout performer at first glance.

Indeed, five of the six runners came from the Flat and all of them ran to a best Racing Post Rating of between 77 and 83.

At the lower end was Parliament Hill, who nevertheless made the best hurdles debut of all of these, scoring comfortably at Leicester in November and posting an RPR of 116.

That makes him joint-top-rated on hurdles form with Collingham, who also won first time up, but actually showed much-improved form in defeat on his next two starts.

Parliament Hill, though, had far fewer Flat starts than his rivals from that sphere, so is open to more improvement, and unless Gary Moore's ex-French Kotmask has the speed for this drop in trip, Olly Murphy's juvenile is the one to beat.

There have to be worries with Kotmask, who stormed clear by 12 lengths at Fontwell on only his second racecourse start but did so in deteriorating conditions over nearly 2m2f.

The son of St Leger winner Masked Marvel looked an out-and-out stayer that day, only getting on top well after the last, and it remains to be seen if he can handle this much sharper test as this is likely to be won in a time at least half a minute quicker than he was at Fontwell.
Race analysis by Paul Kealy

What they say

Milton Harris, trainer of Genuflex
He hated the really heavy ground at Chepstow last time and Paddy Brennan looked after him. On his previous form he would have an each-way chance and hopefully the ground dries out a bit for him.

Gary Moore, trainer of Kotmask
He won very nicely at Fontwell on his first run in this country, which was no surprise as he’s shown us plenty at home, but I don’t know how strong that race was. This is a tougher test but he goes there with a decent shout.

Olly Murphy, trainer of Parliament Hill
We’ve always liked him and he won well first time for us at Leicester but I don’t know how good the race was. We gave him a bit of a break after that but he hasn't missed any work and he heads there in good shape. We could look at the Adonis Hurdle with him or get him handicapped for something like the Fred Winter at Cheltenham.

Richard Newland, trainer of Rewired
He came out of his first race well and we thought we’d have a crack at this as it’s decent prize-money. It’s competitive but hopefully he can be in the shake-up.
Reporting by David Milnes

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