Oiseau De Nuit

Oiseau De Nuit produced a good effort to finish third behind Chaninbar on ground that would have been quick enough for him in a competitive two-mile handicap chase at Aintree on Thursday. Held up toward the outside by Joe Tizzard, he put in an untidy jump at the second and was then hampered by the fall of Chapoturgeon and Kilmackilloge at the third, these two fences probably cost him five or six lengths and he needed to be shaken up by Tizzard to get back into a rhythm. This race was run at a frenetic pace from flagfall as Chaninbar pushed on from the front. Oiseau De Nuit began to stay on when Tizzard got at him coming into the straight and he just stayed on to finish third, well behind Chaninbar and Doctor David, but clear of the rest of the field.

This was a decent effort from Colin Tizzard’s gelding. Pulled up in the Grand Annual when he was as short as 8/1, he ran a much better race here. The early pace took no prisoners and may have caused Oiseau De Nuit’s error at the second, it was definitely responsible for Kilmackilloge’s fall at the third, which hampered Tizzard’s gelding badly. This cost him ground at a crucial stage. He still looks potentially well handicapped on a mark of 144 on his three-length second to Kalahari King in a decent handicap chase at Doncaster. He was disappointing on the face of it in the Grand Annual at Cheltenham, but Giles Hawkins won't be saving that video, he allowed the horse make ground going up the hill on the far side, and actually took it up at the top of the hill, a horse who is at his best when he is held up and delivered late, before he unsurprisingly faded and was eventually pulled up. With Joe Tizzard back on board at Aintree, this was much more like it.

Oiseau De Nuit has been nicely progressive this year, he was beaten only a short head at Wincanton on St Stephen's Day to a good horse in Green Belt Elite and then went on to run out an impressive winner at Ffos Las in January, beating Moon Over Miami by seven lengths. His run behind Kalahari King was a career best effort and he still looks well capable of landing a good two-mile handicap chase on easy ground.

8th April 2010

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