Talk The Talk
Talk The Talk is not under the radar, not even nearly, but he is still worthy of inclusion after his fall at the final flight in the Paddy Power Future Champions' Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown on Saturday. Supplemented to the race, he was seventh of the eight runners leaving the back straight. He moved up nicely on the inside on the run around the home turn and then, switched to the outside by Sam Ewing, he showed a sparkling turn of foot to hit the front on the run to the final flight. He clocked 13.33 seconds for the penultimate furlong, the fastest of the race.
He was unlucky to fall, he over-jumped the obstacle and got his back end up too high. It's not certain that he would have won, the winner Skylight Hustle went to the line strongly, but Talk The Talk was trading at 1.04 in-running and it is probable that he would have won. Skylight Hustle himself is an exciting horse, and the pair of them would have pulled well clear of their rivals.
This was just Talk The Talk's third run over hurdles. Out of a half-sister to Hyde, the dam of Goshen and Elimay, Joseph O'Brien's horse was impressive in winning a good Grade 3 four-year-olds' hurdle on Hatton's Grace Hurdle day at Fairyhouse in November, and he was stepping up on that here. The Dublin Racing Festival is surely next, he will be a big player in the Grade 1 two-mile novices' hurdle there, and, afterwards, the Supreme Novices' Hurdle will surely be his Cheltenham target.
Leopardstown, 27th December 2025
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