Jessica Harrington is ending a turbulent 2023 on a high note after Jetara’s impressive Grade Three success at Leopardstown on Friday.
The pioneering trainer revealed earlier this year that she was fighting breast cancer, although illness has hardly interrupted her stride when it comes to saddling winners.
A total of 63 domestic victories on the flat this year – worth over €1.6 million in prize money – placed her third behind only Aidan and Joseph O’Brien in the trainers’ championship.
Inevitably, her switch of focus to the level has seen her National Hunt interests decrease. But the woman who has won almost every major jumps prize, including the Cheltenham Gold Cup, is more than keeping her eye in with Jetara this winter.
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The regally-bred mare completed a hat-trick in the Beatthebank Mares’ Hurdle in smooth style under Jack Kennedy.
“She jumped and settled and he [Kennedy] said he couldn’t believe how much she picked up. He thought he had got there plenty soon enough and, when he asked her, she picked up well,” Harrington said.
Unlike so many others, the mare from the family of Harrington’s Champion Hurdle winner Jezki could skip a trip to the Cheltenham Festival.
“We are delighted with her. She will be better on better ground – the whole family want better ground. She is the only one of them that is happy on that soft ground.
“She will probably come back here for the novice hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival. We might as well, as she is still a novice. She jumps very slick, and they [geldings] will have to give her 7lb.
“Then we will probably wait for Fairyhouse, which is early this year, for the mares’ Grade One. That will be kind of her programme,” the trainer added.
Harrington is set to saddle three runners at Punchestown’s end of year card on Sunday and if it appears a comparatively unremarkable card, such presumption has been known to backfire dramatically at this fixture.
It’s 10 years since Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary set off a spectacular New Year’s Eve firework by taking Davy Russell for an infamous cup of tea that resulted in the jockey losing his job as No 1 rider to Gigginstown Stud.
A decade later, and with Russell having called time on his stellar career earlier this year, the Gigginstown team has a single runner in action on the final day of 2023.
The newcomer Storm Heart lines up for a three-year-old maiden hurdle and presents a reminder of the sport’s shifting reality. Last year saw a reconciliation between O’Leary and Willie Mullins after a high-profile 2016 split over training fees.
Storm Heart is yet another of Mullins’s French recruits, having won the final of his five starts on the flat in March.
Sunday’s race has the capacity to throw up top-notchers as underlined by the 2021 renewal when Pied Piper edged out no less than Vauban in a close finish.
This shapes as another race dominated by Mullins and Gordon Elliott with the latter represented by both Hey Whatever and Roboreti, who carries the colours of Curragh trainer Kevin Prendergast.
The latter appears to be the stable second choice but did show promise when runner-up on his Navan debut to stable companion Kala Conti.
Sunday’s conditions hurdle includes some well-known names at various career-path stages.
All roads lead back to Liverpool for Vanillier, who finished runner-up in last season’s Grand National but this looks to be exploratory stuff for others.
Sir Gerhard and Thedevilscoachman return to flights having had mixed fortunes over fences last time, while top-rated Ashdale Bob is getting his campaign under way.
Thedevilscoachamn narrowly beat Ashdale Bob in the Boyne Hurdle last year and relishes ultra-testing conditions. Out of the frame behind Coko Beach in the Troytown last month he could score for the JP McManus team, who also have Andy Dufresne in the line-up.
Three Card Brag came up against Corbetts Cross on his last start and should relish the three-mile test of the opening Beginners’ Chase.
Gordon Elliott looks like he’s entitled to also fancy his chances in the bumper with Instant Tendance who returns to the level after a decent third in maiden hurdle company last month.
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