Hillsdale

The other horse to take out of the listed novices' handicap chase at Navan on Saturday is Hillsdale. He was still travelling well in front when he clipped the top of the second last fence and came down. It is impossible to know how he would have fared, and the big worry about him going into the race was about his stamina for the near-three-mile trip. Conor Stone-Walsh rode him with the confidence of a rider who thought that he would stay the trip alright. We still don't know that he would have and, Canal End finished with such power that it would have taken a fair effort from Hillsdale to see him off.

Philip Fenton's horse was progressive over shorter distances going into the race though. A good winner of a 0-102 contest over two miles at Naas in December, he did well to win next time at Clonmel, off an 11lb higher mark over two miles and one and a half furlongs, when a mistake at the third last fence set him alight and could have compromised his chance of winning. In the end though, he kept on well to come home seven and a half lengths clear of Cheerful Chap, who finished second too in Sunday's race. Hillsdale is now rated 122, 13lb higher than he was when he won at Clonmel in January, but he is seriously progressive and, a six-year-old who has raced just six times over fences, he has the scope to improve again. It may be that he will be able to stay three miles, there is plenty of stamina in his pedigree, but, for now, he will be of greatest interest over two and a half miles or shorter.

Navan, 22^nd March 2025