Eclair De Beaufeu

Eclair De Beaufeu was running a big race in the two-mile handicap hurdle when he came down at the second last flight.

Settled nicely early on in fourth place, he travelled well for Jack Wildman just behind the leaders. He was sticky enough over a few of his hurdles, which was understandable, given that he hadn’t run over hurdles since April 2019, with the result that he got shuffled back a little bit in the field in terms of positions, but he wasn’t any more than four lengths off the pace going to the third last flight. He landed a bit awkwardly at that obstacle and dropped to eighth as a consequence but, given a squeeze by his rider and moved towards the outside, he picked up nicely and moved into second place on the run to the second last flight. He just clipped the top of that obstacle though, and came down.

This was Gordon Elliott’s horse’s first run over hurdles since he finished last of six in a Grade 2 hurdle at the Fairyhouse Irish National meeting in 2019. He has progressed well over fences in the interim, he won a valuable handicap chase at the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown in February, and he finished second behind his stable companion Chosen Mate in the Grand Annual at Cheltenham in March off a handicap rating of 149. He was racing off his hurdles mark of 135 on Sunday, and he proved that he could still be competitive off that mark over hurdles. He will be of interest if connections decide to allow him take his chance in another handicap hurdle off this type of mark, and he will also be of interest if and when he goes back over fences. He is only six and, all going well, there could still be more to come.

Fairyhouse, 29^th November 2020