Timiyan

You can just ignore Timiyan’s run in the Kerry National. He made a horrendous mistake at the first fence, he did well to stand up and Darragh O’Keeffe did well to remain on board, but he had no chance after that. The Gordon Elliott-trained gelding did try to make up the ground,  and he managed to get back in touch, but he really faced an impossible task in a race in which Snow Falcon ran out a worthy winner. You can simply put a line through this run.

JP McManus’ horse remains a horse of interest. On his previous run, he won the Midlands National at Kilbeggan, getting up on the line under a well-judged ride from Mark Walsh to beat his new stable companion Rogue Angel by a neck. That was Rogue Angel’s first run for Gordon Elliott and he was racing off a mark of 125, 20lb lower than his peak. Obviously the market felt that the Gigginstown House horse was still a well-handicapped horse, racing on Wednesday as he was off a mark of 132, 7lb higher, given that he was backed down to 7/2 favourite for Wednesday’s race. By contrast, Timiyan was relatively weak in the market. But he is only seven and he has raced just eight times over fences. He still has lots of scope for progression as a chaser.

An Aga Khan-bred horse, he won twice over a mile and a half on the flat for Dermot Weld, and he was racing over 3m for the first time at Kilbeggan when he won the Midlands National, putting up the best performance of his career over fences so far. He was raised by 10lb for that, but it brought him up to a mark of just 132, which is equal to his rating over hurdles. He could be well handicapped over fences on that mark, and he could make up into a talented staying handicap chaser this season. He has form on soft and heavy ground, but he is probably at his best on goodish ground.

Listowel, 12^th September 2018