Jump On Jazz At 66s For Mares’ Race At Festival

Most of the biggest trial races have now been run and I think everyone is a lot more the wiser as to what appeals to them for the Cheltenham Festival. On Day 2 of the Dublin Racing festival none of my selections hit the frame, but I think we may have witnessed something special from Samcro. The way he won suggested he is a horse with an insane amount of ability, and if Gordon Elliott gets him to the festival in top shape we could see a performance that will really get the pulse racing.

 

Samcro looked the real deal at Leopardstown.

I was a doubter before Sunday, but after watching him wipe the floor with some very useful horses I am now convinced that Samcro is the real deal. I hesitate to use the dreaded ‘B’ word that is loved by so many Irish punters, but from what we have seen he is the closest thing to a banker you can get. He should win whatever race he turns up in, and from what I have heard through the grapevine he will be heading for the Supreme. His price is long gone now though, and for a festival fancy at a much bigger odds just read on.

At last year’s Cheltenham Festival I thought Midnight Jazz had a very good chance of reaching the frame but she didn’t seem to show her best. My reason for fancying her was her superb effort when beaten by just a head by Vroum Vroum Mag in a Grade 2 heat at Doncaster, and I thought that if she could repeat that run at a track where she had run well before then she could easily sneak a place.

However, I don’t think Ben Case had counted on her being good enough to go to Cheltenham at the start of the season and because of that she was having her 6th run by the time she got to the Festival. On top of that, she had a very hard race against Vroum Vroum Mag on her previous start too. I think these factors combined to stop Midnight Jazz from producing her very best, and now that Ben Case knows she has the ability to compete at this level he has altered her training plan so that she should be peaking come March.

She has had just the two runs so far this season, making her seasonal reappearance with a quiet run at Ludlow at the start of December. Her only start since came at Sandown in a Listed heavy ground 20f hurdle and she ran a blinder to finish 2nd behind Poppy Kay, a very useful mare in her own right who has won 5 from 9 under rules, only ever finishing out of the money once. They will renew rivalries at Warwick on Saturday and I think Ben Case’s 8yo daughter of Midnight Legend could reverse the form.

Midnight Jazz putting it right up to Vroum Vroum Mag at Doncaster.

Midnight Jazz started last season with form figures of 12122, with that final second coming in that pulsating battle with Vroum Vroum Mag. The way she has started this term suggests that Case has left himself with plenty to work with fitness wise, and she should come on bundles for her first two runs back. She will also appreciate the likely better ground at Cheltenham too as her best form has come on good. I am expecting a big run from her on Saturday, and if she does manage to win I can see her shortening up for the festival.

If her form last season is anything to go by she should come on leaps and bounds for the outing at Warwick, and this time she will hopefully be heading to Cheltenham cherry ripe. She is usually a quick and efficient hurdler, and while she is a small mare she is as game as a pebble. She has run well at Cheltenham twice from three visits and she wasn’t disgraced in the Mares’ Hurdle when 10th in 2017. I believe she could be capable of better than that, and while Apple’s Jade will be hard to beat Midnight Jazz could sneak into the frame at odds of 66/1.


STEVOS’ SELECTION: MARES’ HURDLE CHELTENHAM: MIDNIGHT JAZZ E/W @ 66/1