The Mares Chase is a race where I have had a lot of success in previous years, selecting the winner in all but one of the renewals, and this year, there is one standing out like a sore thumb.
JP McManus has farmed this race, winning all bar the first running of the Mares Chase, and he is sure to have a strong hand going into this season’s renewal. However, it would be disappointing if there wasn’t a mare capable of improving past the ageing Dinoblue.
Brighterdaysahead is the one that many will latch onto once she makes her chase debut, but given that she has bombed out on the two times that she has raced at the Festival, I’m more than happy to take her on at her price.
Last season’s Arkle Novices’ Chase runner-up Only By Night is given massive respect, but there is a question mark over whether she wants this kind of test. While the fragile Spindleberry is one that you can see skipping the Festival in favour of Fairyhouse.
And that leads me onto the selection, THE BIG WESTERNER.
The Henry de Bromhead-trained mare made huge strides in a short space of time last season in her novice hurdle campaign. She won her maiden hurdle and then went on to win a Grade 2 on only her second start over hurdles, followed by a second to Jasmin De Vaux in the Grade 1 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle.
She ended the season by being pulled up just weeks later at Fairyhouse after her massive effort at Cheltenham, and it is easy to forgive her for that run.
Now, there is a chance that she will line up in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase, but given that Final Demand and a few others may end up there as well, connections may opt for the easier option in the Mares Chase.
The Big Westerner looks every inch a chaser, and it has been confirmed that she will be going chasing this season. So, given her second-place finish in the Albert Bartlett against the boys last season, she has the potential to make up into a top-class chaser this season.
At her current price, in what is not the strongest race on paper, I am more than willing to take the chance that she will line up in the Mares Chase come March, and be the one that they all have to beat.
Selection #1: Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle – Conman John 20/1
