Bold Emperor

Bold Emperor was probably unlucky not to win the two-and-a-quarter-mile handicap chase at Galway on Tuesday. Sent to the front from flagfall, his jumping was very good, and he had all his rivals on the stretch as they raced down the hill final time to the last two fences in the dip. Bridge Native and Espion Du Chenet closed on him a little as they raced down the hill, but it looked like Darragh O’Keeffe was just giving his horse a breather. He jumped the second last fence well too, but he just seemed to lose his footing on landing and he came down. It appeared as if he was none the worse for his mishap though, thankfully, as, once he had regained his equilibrium, he went and jumped the final fence without his rider.

This is the third time that Bold Emperor has fallen or unseated his rider in just six runs over fences but, actually, he generally a fluent jumper. He was fairly well exposed over hurdles but, given a chase rating of 112, he has the potential to go higher now as a chaser. Tom Gibney’s horse was good in winning his beginners’ chase at Sligo last month, when he made all the running, and he will always be of interest if and when it looks like he will be able to engineer an easy lead for himself, especially at a track that favours prominent racers. He probably wouldn’t want really deep, winter ground, but he does handle soft ground okay.
Galway, 5^th October 2021