Hewick has been supplemented into the first Grade One prize of the National Hunt season at Down Royal on Saturday.
Connections of the hugely popular King George winner have paid out €15,000 to add their diminutive star to the Ladbrokes Champion Chase.
The prospect of quick jumping ground might have Gordon Elliott pondering whether or not to allow last year’s winner Gerri Colombe line up, but it’s a favourable outlook for the Hewick team.
He is among seven left in the €150,000 highlight after Tuesday’s latest acceptance stage, and Hewick will bid to secure a timely top-level success for his trainer John ‘Shark’ Hanlon who starts a suspension on December 1st.
Hanlon had his original 10-month license suspension for transporting a dead horse in public view reduced to six months on appeal to an Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) panel last week. That could be reduced to just three months if he adheres to some IHRB conditions.
It will be Hewick’s second appearance at Down Royal, over five years after he finished out of the money in a lowly handicap hurdle there.
Since then, the bargain buy €850 purchase has catapulted himself into one of the sport’s most high-profile success stories, including other victories in races such as the Galway Plate and the American Grand National.
Initial bookmaker reaction was to make Hewick a 5/1 third favourite behind the 2022 winner Envoi Allen and Gerri Colombe, who is a heavy odds-on favourite despite holding an alternative engagement in Wetherby’s Charlie Hall Chase on the same day.
Any headache Elliott might have about where Gerri Colombe should best line up on his first start of the season would vanish if Down Royal officials didn’t have to selectively water and instead were facing the sort of soft ground likely to figure for the Curragh’s flat season finale on Sunday.
The unseasonable nature of ground conditions for jumpers though was underlined by the cancellation of Thursday’s scheduled Thurles fixture.
“Unfortunately, due to the unseasonably dry weather we have had this month, there has been insufficient rain at Thurles and the track is unsuitable for National Hunt racing,” said clerk of the course, Lorcan Wyer.
“We did have 10mm of rain here since entries last Thursday, but during my routine inspection this morning the track was unsuitable for jump racing. With not enough rainfall due between now and racing, we have had to make the difficult decision to cancel the fixture.”
Separately, a total of 16 Irish-trained runners will line up for the Breeders’ Cup in Del Mar over Friday and Saturday.
Aidan O’Brien has 11 of them, including City of Troy who has been made a 5/2 Morning Line favourite in the US after drawing stall three of the 14 runners in the $7 million (€6.5 million) Classic. O’Brien has also engaged Frankie Dettori for a pair of second-string hopes, Content (Filly & Mare) and Ides of March in Friday night’s Juvenile Turf Sprint.
O’Brien’s son Donnacha has the big Mile hope Porta Fortuna who will break from stall seven under Tom Marquand, while there are a trio of other Irish hopefuls.
Ger Lyons and Colin Keane combine for Magnum Force in the Juvenile Turf Sprint, while Gary Carroll rides Gavin Cromwell’s 30/1 outsider Fiery Lucy in the Juvenile Fillies Turf. On the same Friday programme, Adrian Murray’s Hill Road tackles dirt in the Juvenile. Italian Umberto Rispoli rides.
City of Troy’s half-sister Takemetothemountain will be a warm order to improve on her Leopardstown debut in a Dundalk fillies maiden on Wednesday. Her stable companions First Wave and Serengeti could dominate the colt’s maiden.
