Irish runners abroad on Saturday: Quality over Quantity There may not be an abundance of Irish raiders in Britain on Saturday but in the case of one horse in particular, it’s definitely quality over quantity. Willie Mullins is sending a very smart horse over for Ascot’s feature race, whilst Denis Hogan has a couple of runners in the opening juvenile hurdle. Here we assess the chances of all three runners and it could be a very good day for the Mullins-trained raider. Elman (Ascot 12.25) It’s hard to be too confident about the chances of the Denis Hogan-trained Elman, although he was potentially on course to run a much better race on his first start over hurdles at Limerick on Boxing Day. Beginning his career on the Flat with Johnny Murtagh, the son of Lope De Vega finished seventh of nine in a Fairyhouse maiden over 1m2f back in June. He looked pretty green and wasn’t quite sure what the job was at that point but the fourth is now a smart 98-rated handicapper. Two more defeats then followed, and they came by margins of 17 lengths and 38 lengths, and it is a slight concern that his performances have got worse with experience. Starting to fade when falling two out over hurdles last time, there’s some hope if he can build on that effort. Genealogy (Ascot 12.25) Sam Twiston-Davies has been booked for the ride on Genealogy and that news certainly catches the eye. Formerly trained by Aidan O’Brien on the Flat, he showed some useful form in that sphere, particularly when comfortably winning a two-year-old maiden over a mile. Perhaps his best effort came in the Group 3 Autumn Stakes at Newmarket next time. Delacroix was the winner that day and it’s fair to say that he has upheld the form. Genealogy finished fifth of the six runners but was far from disgraced. Starting out over hurdles at Limerick last month, he wasn’t exactly given a hard time and produced a decent enough performance to finish eighth. Keeping on despite not being able to challenge, he’s entitled to take a big step forward from that. Il Etait Temps (Ascot 3.30) Willie Mullins’ grey may not be the biggest of horses, but he makes up for it with heart and talent. He grew into his novice chasing campaign and blossomed in the spring, winning Grade 1 races at Aintree and Punchestown. We didn’t see him until the end of April almost a year after that and he impressively dispatched Jonbon in the Celebration Chase at Sandown. Il Etait Temps came back with a bang when winning a Grade 2 at Clonmel with ease on seasonal debut. The son of Jukebox Jury then came over to Britain for the Tingle Creek and was far too good for Jonbon once again, easily putting nine lengths between them. That form is telling and it’s very hard to see a different result, now that the pair are set to clash again.
