Tapenade goes over hurdles for the first time at Wexford

March 19, 2021

Cheltenham 2021 - Review

The week belongs to Henry De Bromhead, Rachael Blackmore and Jack Kennedy. Minella Indo won the Gold Cup having lost the RSA on the line this time last year. Everyone loves a comeback story and this is one because following that defeat there was a fall at Leopardstown at Christmas and a very ordinary run in February. I thought he was very overrated and even though he fit the age range (the last 3 winners of the race were 7 or 8 years old), I over looked him for Al Boum Photo. Funnily enough it had the feel of when Al Boum Photo won in 2019 because there wasn't a lot of talk about him. I still expected him to be beaten even when he flew the last but A Plus Tard couldn't run him down. He proved me and the doubters wrong today by adding the top prize in National Hunt racing to that narrow second last year and the Albert Bartlett two years ago. What a Cheltenham record! Fantastic for Jack Kennedy as well. He's had some week too - Black Tears beating the hot favourite Concertis

After three bumper runs, Tapenade cut his teeth over obstacles in this 2 mile hurdle at Wexford on St.Patricks Day. Keith Donoghue was doing the steering, fresh from riding Tiger Roll to an impressive victory in the cross country at Cheltenham. The word beforehand was that the trip would be too short for him but the run would do him good. He was a bit keen to start with but Keith soon had him settled near the back of the field and he had him in a good jumping rhythm too. Tapenade made his way up the outside to dispute the lead at three out and from then on it was just a matter of seeing if he could find another gear to go on and try and win the race. He was part of a group of six from which the winner would emerge but by the time they got to the second last, it was clear it wouldn't be our horse. He faded quite badly to finish sixth. The winner was the favourite An Fraoch Mór who recently finished fourth to Ballymore winner City Island.

There was plenty to like about Tapenades first run over jumps. We're still not sure what his favourite distance or ground conditions are going to be but he's always been talked about as looking like a chasing type. Hopefully he can get his head in front over hurdles soon because although we've had lots of runners, it's been a while since we've had a winner.