Jody Ted

Jody Ted did well to win the Pertemps qualifier at Punchestown on Sunday. He did plenty wrong through the race, he was keener than ideal early on and he made a couple of mistakes on the way around, including at the third last flight, at a key point in the race, when he put in a short stride and hit the top of the flight. He was quickly back on an even keel though, and he made good ground around the outside around the home turn to hit the front on the run to the last, before staying on well for Mark McDonagh to win nicely.

Eoin Griffin’s horse was racing here off a hurdles handicap rating of 115, 19lb lower than his chase mark. That doesn’t always work out, there is a reason why horses’ hurdles marks are often different to their chase marks, and there are myriad examples of instances in which a lower mark in one code hasn’t been exploited in the other. However, Jody Ted was racing over hurdles for the first time here since he won a novices’ hurdle at Limerick in April 2021, and he had progressed over fences in the interim. There was every chance that he is just an improved horse since then, and that that improved ability would be applicable over hurdles as much as it was over fences. The handicapper raised him by 12lb for this win (he was racing from 1lb out of the handicap) to a mark of 126, but he has the potential to go beyond that mark over hurdles. It is still 8lb lower than his chase mark, so that gives him plenty of leeway. He will be interesting too when he goes back over fences. He has a nice progressive profile and he is a horse from whom there could be a fair bit more to come.

Punchestown, 26^th November 2023