Ebasari

Ebasari put up a really game performance on his hurdling debut to get the better of his long odds-on rival Adamantly Chosen in the two-mile maiden hurdle at Cork last Saturday. Settled nicely by Davy Russell along the inside and just behind the leaders, his jumping was good for a debutant, he travelled well the whole way, and he moved up on the outside of Adamantly Chose as they straightened up for home. The pair of them had a good tussle from there, but it always looked as if Ebasari was travelling slightly better. About a neck up jumping the last, Gordon Elliott’s horse battled on well up the run-in to go on and win by three parts of a length, the pair of them pulling miles clear of their rivals.

It was a gutsy performance by Ebasari. He was conceding race fitness to his year-older and talented rival, who won the Land Rover Bumper last April, and who finished a good second to subsequent Challow Hurdle third Gringo D’Aubrelle on his hurdling bow at Fairyhouse in late November, and the pair of them finished 30 lengths clear of their rivals. By Lope De Vega and out of an Aga Khan mare who stayed a mile and a half, from the family of Estimate and Enzeli, he reached a peak rating of 72 on the flat for Michael Halford, but he has the potential to be a better hurdler. He holds an entry in the Grade 1 Spring Juvenile Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival, and he could be an interesting outsider in that if he takes his chance.
Cork, 8^th January 2022