Tudor City

Tudor City ran a cracker to finish second in the Coral.ie Hurdle at Leopardstown on Sunday. Held up in mid-division by Robbie Colgan through the early stages of the race, Tony Martin's horse was a little keener than ideal in his first-time cheekpieces, and a fairly significant error at the second last flight in the back straight didn't help.

Still travelling well on the run to the second last flight around the inside, he wasn't very good at that obstacle either, he landed hind legs first, but he still travelled really well around the home turn. He was further back than ideal at that point and in traffic, and he still didn't have a clear run on the approach to the final flight as he picked up. He did get a gap and he jumped that flight well before setting out after Ice Cold Soul, but that rival picked up well in front and wasn't for catching. Tudor City closed to a half a length in the end, but it never really looked like he was going to catch Noel Meade's horse.

This was another fine run from John Breslin's horse. This was a highly-competitive handicap hurdle, and it was run in a good pace and in a good time. It was probably the best of Tudor City's life.

He has not won yet in nine attempts over hurdles, but he has finished second in his last three runs, and he won on the flat at Limerick on his previous run. He continues to progress, he seems to thrive in these big-field handicaps, and he goes well on goodish ground. As such, he could be a horse for the County Hurdle or even, looking further ahead, the Galway Hurdle. He won a handicap on the flat at the Galway Festival in 2015, and he ran a cracker to finish second in a handicap hurdle at Cheltenham last November on his only run at the track.

The handicapper raised him by 4lb for Sunday's run, which brings him up to a mark of 128, and that is fine. He will be of interest again in a similar type of race off that mark.

22^nd January 2017

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