Old McDonald

Noel Glynn has never tried to conceal the fact that he holds Old McDonald in the highest regard, and the son of King’s Theatre took another step forward when he won his maiden hurdle at Naas on Saturday on his second run over hurdles. Held up in the early stages by Robbie Power, he made nice ground on the outside to take it up on the approach to the second last, pulled away impressively from his rivals on the run to the last, jumped that flight well and stayed on powerfully all the way to the line to record an impressive victory.

This was a good maiden hurdle and the right horses chased the winner home. Runner-up Jetson has always been highly-regarded by Noel Meade and got to within four lengths of Shot From The Hip on his previous run at Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival, while third-placed Crash had won his only point-to-point and his only bumper, and had finished a close-up third in a decent maiden hurdle at Fairyhouse on New Year’s Day when he shaped as if he would come on appreciably for the run. Both the second and the third should be winning their maiden hurdles soon. As well as that, the time was good, the best comparative time of the day and almost four seconds faster than the time that the high class Shinrock Paddy clocked in winning the Grade 3 Limestone Lad Hurdle a half an hour later.

An impressive winner of a bumper at Ludlow last winter, Old McDonald was high in the betting for the Cheltenham bumper (at one point he was due to be ridden by Kieren Fallon) before he was scratched, and he wasn’t at all disgraced behind Hidden Universe in the Punchestown equivalent in April. It is significant that his trainer has entered him in the Grade 1 Deloitte Hurdle at Leopardstown next month, he is effective on good ground as well as soft, and he is an exciting novice hurdler for the remainder of the season.

15th January 2011

© The Irish Field, 22nd January 2011