D Art D Art

D Art D Art was impressive in winning the opening maiden hurdle at Cork last Saturday. Prominent from early, he moved into a clear lead under Donagh Meyler at the fifth flight, and he kept on well from there. He did make a mistake at the second last flight, and that gave his closest pursuer Paggane a chance, but he picked up well from there, jumped the last well and stayed on strongly to win impressively.

It was a nice bounce back to form by Tom Cooper’s horse, who was reversing places here with Will Wilde, who finished in front of him at Naas last month on his hurdling debut, when he made two significant mistakes at crucial stages of the race. He was a promising bumper horse last season, he won on his racecourse debut at Gowran Park last January, and he was considered good enough to be given his chance in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham. He was well beaten there, but there were excuses, he swallowed a clump of turf, so you can easily allow him that.

This was much more like it, his jumping was very good with the exception of the second last flight, he showed a really good attitude, and it appeared that he won with at least a little in hand in a good time, almost three seconds faster than the time that the 128-rated Flamborough clocked in winning the rated novices’ hurdle 35 minutes later. D Art D Art holds an entry himself in a rated novices’ hurdle at Down Royal on Tuesday, and he will be of interest if he takes his chance in that, but he will be of interest wherever he goes next. It is interesting that connections think enough of him to give him an entry in the Grade 1 Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival.

Cork, 6^th January 2024