Hector Javilex

Hector Javilex did well to finish fourth in the conditional jockeys’ handicap hurdle at Cheltenham last Friday, having raced prominently from flagfall. He settled in second place early on behind the keen-going outsider Cheng Gong, with the field well stretched out behind them from early. He moved up to join the leader at the top of the hill, and he jumped into the lead at the third last flight. He quickly came under a ride from Lilly Pinchin on the run to the second last flight as Fine Casting moved up on the outside, but he responded well to pressure. He jumped the final flight almost upsides the new leader but, in the end, his early exertions took their toll up the hill and he faded to finish fourth behind Sweet Will.
It was a fine performance by Charlie Longsdon’s horse to keep on as well as he did after racing prominently in a race in which the winner and the third both came from well back in the field.

It was just his fifth run over hurdles too. Winner of his two hurdle races last March, he wasn’t beaten that far in the Grade 2 Persian War Hurdle at Chepstow on his first run back after his summer break, and this was probably a step forward from that. The handicapper raised him by just 2lb to a mark of 125, and he has the potential to go beyond that mark now. He is only five. He stays this two-mile-five-furlong trip well and, second in a point-to-point, he could get three miles over hurdles in time. He goes well on this goodish ground.
Cheltenham, 11^th November 2022