Karinga Dancer

Karinga Dancer is a really progressive horse and he is worth noting after an emphatic win on his reappearance in a good handicap hurdle over two miles and a furlong at Aintree on Saturday.

The Harry Fry-trained gelding travelled really well through his race. He was a little wide, giving away ground at times, but that made no difference. He jumped quickly, he was suited by the strong pace set by Liberty’s Gift and Mwaleshi, and he travelled strongly on the run around into the home straight. It looked like he might be in trouble when he was short of room on the run to the second last flight. Bygones Of Brid was keeping him in a pocket behind the leader at that point, which allowed Ifandbutwhynot to come and hit the front on the outside. However, Karinga Dancer got out up the inside after jumping the second last. He had to rebuild his momentum, but he was able to do that quite quickly, and he hit the front before the final flight before coming away up the run-in to win by eight lengths.

The son of Karinga Bay is now four from four since his wind operation last season, and he has the potential to continue progressing now. He has been raised 12lb for this, his handicap debut, but the style of his success suggests that he could still be well-handicapped over hurdles.

That may be irrelevant for the immediate future, however, as he is due to go over fences now, and that makes a lot of sense. He is a big horse who is built for chasing and who could be a better chaser than he is a hurdler. Having had a wind operation, and given that he wears a tongue-tie and a cross noseband, he probably would not want the ground to be too soft (the Persian War Novices’ Hurdle at Chepstow on the same day was his original plan, but he came here instead for better ground), but he stays further than this two-mile trip, and he is a potentially exciting novice chaser. It is interesting that Harry Fry has entered him for the Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham’s Open meeting, and he would be of interest if he ran in that, especially if the ground was not too soft, before embarking on a chasing career.

26th October 2013