Past Winners » Jessies Dream

15th-Dec-2002

Jessies Dream is the value for me at the prices. Gordon Elliott’s horse wasn’t as good as Mikael D’Haguenet over hurdles, but he was high class all the same, as he showed when he beat Noble Prince at the 2009 Punchestown Festival, and he shaped like a high class novice chaser last season on his debut when he fell in Zaarito’s beginners’ chase at Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival. Elliott feels that he wasn’t quite right after that, that he probably brought him back too quickly anyway, and he ran him over hurdles at Punchestown in order to protect his novice status for this season …

It is significant that he is the first horse that Elliott has sold to David Johnson, with whom he would have struck up a good relationship when he worked with Martin Pipe, and Jessies Dream looked really good in winning his beginners’ chase at Galway on his debut this season. That race hasn’t worked out too well since, but the manner in which he beat some useful horses was impressive, and crucially his jumping was really good. He is a second-season novice, he is much more experienced both in terms of racing and in terms of schooling than most of his rivals, which is a huge advantage at Fairyhouse, with its stiff fences, and he is a real stayer for whom two and a half miles on soft ground at this stage of the season should be ideal. He is worth backing.

JESSIES DREAM WON (ADV 9/2, SP 7/2)