Min
26th December 2016 – Leopardstown – It would be difficult not to be super impressed with this facile success for Min. He jumped fast and fluently and kept pulling out more with the minimum of fuss when required. If we wish to be picky we would say that he did rather hurdle the last fence. That aside he was pretty much foot perfect and he is the obvious horse to take advantage should anything go wrong for Altior in the Arkle. We only have one piece of evidence in the Champion Hurdle to compare him with Nicky Henderson’s star novice chaser; clearly this is a different game over fences but we have seen no evidence thus far to suggest that Altior will not prove be at least as good over the larger obstacles in March.
My current guess would be for Yorkhill and Buveur Dair to end up contesting the JLT Chase; however, I would not have enough confidence in that assessment at this early stage particularly given how much the Mullins horses switched targets late on last season. Therefore I will comfortably resist any temptation to back Min at 7/2 as a saver for my Altior/Thistlecrack double – I just do not think that mathematics of that strategy add up at those relatively cramped odds. Obviously, if anything happens to Altior prior to Cheltenham I may live to regret that decision.
