Days Hotel

Days Hotel impressed on his debut over fences at Punchestown last Wednesday when winning what is often an informative race, the two-mile beginners’ chase. He was settled in third, a few lengths off the two leaders and a couple of lengths ahead of the rest, he jumped really well, he took it up over the second last and he moved well on the run around to the home straight. The favourite, Nearest The Pin, who had raced further back, closed the gap early in the home straight to a couple of lengths, but Days Hotel started to draw away again coming to the final fence and jumped it well, unlike Nearest The Pin, and stretched right away on the run-in to score by 10 lengths, unextended.

This was a really likeable debut over the larger obstacles from Henry de Bromhead's strapping chasing type. He was a beaten favourite in two point-to-points, and he was well beaten in a bumper, but he progressed over hurdles last season, winning a soft ground two-mile maiden hurdle at Clonmel by a wide margin on his third start. That said, he has always been a chaser in the making. Given a positive mention by de Bromhead in a recent stable tour, in winning this race he was following in the recent hoofprints of Schindlers Hunt, Forpadydeplasterer and Noble Prince. While it will be a big ask for Days Hotel to be as good as any of that trio, he does look like a really useful prospect now, and he could prove to be very good indeed. Soft ground seems to serve him well, he won his maiden hurdle on soft and this win came on heavy ground, and whether this sort of ground is essential for him remains to be seen (he is a half-brother to Travino who did his winning exclusively on soft and heavy ground, although he did do the majority of his racing on testing ground, and he did finish third to Black Jack Ketchum in the three-mile novice hurdle Cheltenham on a sound surface). Days Hotel has the pace for two miles at the moment, especially in these conditions, but he should stay further in time. His fluent jumping should be a big asset in novice company this season.

26th October 2011

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