Marten Julian’s Weekly Roundup 28 April 2025

There seems to be an understanding in Ireland that young inexperienced jumping stock needs to be brought along steadily. Invariably in large fields of novice hurdlers the market leaders set off together in the front while the others trail behind, quite often by the first hurdle.

I get the impression that a higher proportion of novice hurdles are won by, let’s say, the front three in the market in Ireland than in the UK. You seldom see a long-priced horse win at novice level in Ireland.

The stewards seem to accept this state of affairs, knowing that the connections can call upon any number of reasons why their horse has not been put into the race.

However there are occasions when it seems to go too far, and there was possibly such a case in the opening maiden hurdle at Kilbeggan last Friday.

JP McManus had two in the race … Park That, the 11/10 favourite who had finished third and fourth twice in three of his four runs, and Powerful, who had finished 12th and fifth in his two runs.

Park That was supported from 15/8 to 11/10, while Powerful went from 9/2 to 3/1.

I don’t need to run through the entire race, but in the closing stages Simon Torrens on Powerful never resorted to the whip despite appearing to have a horse with more to offer. At the line he was beaten just a short head.

The stewards stepped in and were met with one of the most extensive explanations I have ever seen amounting to 12 lines in the Racing Post, notably that the horse would not respond to the use of the whip and had returned with a small wound on the outside of his near-fore and had a cardiac murmur.

The stewards added that they noted the explanations on the basis of the veterinary evidence alone, which they felt was a very significant factor in arriving at their decision. This suggests to me that without it they would have handed out a ban.

The ride attracted plenty of comment on social media and despite the explanations, given the narrowness of the margin of victory, I believe the best horse in the race finished second.

Frank Berry, racing manager to JP McManus, runs a very tight ship and Enda Bolger and Jessica Harrington would have been made aware of his expectations.

It is tempting to speculate that if the runner-up had not carried the McManus silks the stewards might have reached a different verdict.

Bye for now

Why wait a week? Receive Marten’s free horse racing publication Weekly Roundup the day it is written in full for free every Monday evening by clicking here & signing up for our free Newsletter

© Copyright in all Marten Julian Publications is strictly reserved by the publishers. No material therein may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission from Marten Julian.