Philip Hobbs hopes Menorah has real chance in Greatwood Hurdle
Training racehorses can be a bit of a balancing act between hope and realism.
On the one side there is the need to believe that the next star is just about to arrive in the yard while making the best of what is looking back at you over the stable doors each morning.
Twenty-five years ago Philip Hobbs started out with nine horses and the hope that he could make it pay. There have been plenty of winners but some thin times at the top end – he went three years without a Cheltenham Festival victory until Menorah won the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in March – but Hobbs is making a solid start to this season. Not that he is making any rash predictions.
“Realistically, it’s about having horses who are good enough,” he said. “We’ve hopefully got some nice high-class horses for the better races and plenty of horses able to win ordinary races, so we’re very fortunate in both departments. For whatever reasons, all trainers have good and bad spells and we have a very good spell at the moment,” adding with the pessimism that comes with a trainer’s licence: “but it won’t last.”
Hobbs knows the pretentions of Menorah being a realistic contender for the Champion Hurdle may not last beyond Sunday when he runs in the Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham.
Rooster Booster won the race in 2002, en route to winning that season’s Champion Hurdle, and Detroit City hammered his field by 14 lengths when he won four years later so Hobbs has a fair idea what is needed. “He’s very, very well. It’s a bit of a worry that Get Me Out Of Here [second in the Supreme Novices’] ran disappointingly at Ascot the other day and other bits of form from the race haven’t stacked up but he’s in very good form himself.
“He’s only five and we hope he’s improved from last season. He’ll run in the Greatwood with top-weight; if he can’t win a handicap off 151 then he’s not going to win the Champion Hurdle. We had a couple of blips with him last season – he’s a very genuine horse but he does want a strong pace, which is a reason why we’ve not run him in anything else this season. He got beat at Ascot and Doncaster when there was no pace.”
While Hobbs has a benchmark by which to measure Menorah he is not made from the same templates as the stars of yesteryear. “He’s massively different from both Detroit City and Rooster Booster,” Hobbs explained.
“Detroit City was a great, big, strong boat and Rooster Booster was very keen. This horse is just very straightforward and easy in every way. He’d definitely jump fences when we want to, while the others probably wouldn’t have done,” Hobbs said, adding “he may be jumping them sooner rather than later if he gets beaten on Sunday.”
Dunraven Storm is another who will probably be novice chasing 12 months hence but the obstacle in his way when he runs in the Grade Two Cheltenham Collection Sharp Novices’ Hurdle is Cue Card, who has already stamped himself one of the best young hurdlers around after winning at Aintree last month.
“Dunraven Storm has won his two novice hurdles very well,” Hobbs said. “The handicapper’s given him a rating of 138, so he’s really sent me a note saying ‘you can’t run in a handicap because you have to appear three times to run in those handicaps that he would be qualified for’. He’s likely to meet Cue Card but I think we’ll take that horse on providing the ground does not go soft. Of course, I’m worried about Cue Card but someone has to take him on.”
Captain Chris lost his novice hurdler status at the end of the month which was his cue for a switch to fences for the Grade Two Independent Newspaper Novices’ Chase.
“He’s schooled very well over fences and I certainly hope that I’ve got some nice novice chasers this season,” Hobbs said. “His main problem is his breathing. He will run with a tongue tie on Sunday and hopefully that will help.”
If the tongue works he will have a realistic chance. Hopefully.
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