Front View

Front View stayed on well to finish third in a good beginners’ chase at Thurles on Thursday. Settled towards the rear of the field early on by J J Slevin, he wasn’t overly fluent over the first three fences, with the result that he was last of the 13 runners as they left the back straight. Kept wide in search of better ground, his jumping warmed up as the race developed, even if he did tend to move to his right on occasion. He couldn’t get close to leaders Franco De Port and Whatsnottoknow, who had it between them from a long way out, but he stayed on well from the third last fence to just catch Eleazar Des Neiges for third place.

The first two home are talented horses, Franco De Port was sent off as 10/1 joint fourth favourite for the Coral Cup in March, racing off a mark of 148, while Whatsnottoknow finished eighth behind Shishkin in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. Front View was a good bumper horse himself, and he was progressive last season as a novice hurdler. Joseph O’Brien’s horse beat his stable companion Uhtred and the Willie Mullins-trained Jon Snow in a maiden hurdle at Cork last November, and he finished a good second to Five O’Clock in the Grade 3 Michael Purcell Memorial Hurdle at Thurles in February, when he didn’t have a good run through the race, after which he was sent off as favourite for the Martin Pipe Hurdle at Cheltenham in March. It didn’t really happen for him there but, out of a mare who won over fences in France and related to chasers, he could make up into a good novice chaser this term.

Thurles, 26^th November 2020