Joncol can motor on in Lexus Chase

Joncol

Don’t adjust your television set. The track is really meant to be green.

Horseracing on turf may have been on the endangered list but it was always going to make a comeback. A bit like narrow lapels on men’s suit, it was just a matter of time.

There was a point when Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting looked like it might not get started until after the January sales, but it finally gets under way with the Grade One Lexus Chase as the highlight of the card.

British-trained horses have won this race for the last four years and The Listener, the winner in 2006 for Robert Alner, is back for another go with current trainer Nick Mitchell. However he has been off for more than a year with a tendon injury so his capacity to still mix it at this level would have to be taken on trust. Money Trix, who was beaten just a half-length by What A Friend in last year’s renewal, is also back for another crack but may pay for the lack of a previous run this season.

The Irish-based runners, may not contain an obvious star at present but Joncol has been brought along patiently by Paul Nolan. Joncol is a giant of a horse who probably needed the race and a longer trip when last of four behind Big Zeb over two miles at Navan last month but he showed just what he can do over course and distance when he beat Cooldine by a neck in the Hennessey Gold Cup in February, where Money Trix would probably have made the places but for a bad mistake at the second-last fence.

Ffos Las gets jumping back on the road in Britain for the first time since December 16th and Nicky Henderson, who has a 33% strike-rate with his hurdlers, runs Master Fiddle in the Eileen Rees Birthday Maiden Hurdle.

Henderson trained the dam - Fiddling The Facts - and her two previous progeny, both of whom won races. Master Fiddle duly won his bumper at Market Rasen bumper in March and the form of that race was franked when the runner-up ran a good race until falling at Newbury on his hurdling debut.

Alan Swinbank has not had many bumper runners this season but two winners from three runners is a reminder how hot he is in this division. He has several runners on Southwell’s all-bumper card and First Rock, an 11-length course-and-distance winner last week, can follow up in the Bet totepool On All Irish Racing "Jumpers’ Bumper" National Hunt Flat Race.

Paul Wheeler

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