Jockey Angle with Paddy Flood: 'The horse goes from settled to actually bolting to the fence'

Lead race analyst and jockey coach, Paddy Flood, takes a look at quirky but talented chaser Anzadam and explains why he could perform better over fences than over hurdles as he continues to learn on the job and to give his fences more respect.

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Paddy Flood's Analysis

He's a bit of an enigma over hurdles, isn't he? We've seen Paul have a good few goes on him, and we've seen Patrick have a few goes on him.

He bolted with Patrick Mullins last year in Leopardstown.

He's a very, very talented horse, and the time of this race suggests this was a very good beginners' chase, a bit like Kopek's.

Paul jumped off on this fella, and he's hoping the fences will do the job that the hurdles didn't.

Patrick tried to ride him in Leopardstown last year, let him go to the front hoping he'd back off.

Paul jumped out here through the reins, up in his neck, and he met the first absolutely spot on.

He's a lovely, lovely animal. He wears a hood, obviously, but each to their own. I think he's a very good horse, and this was a very good run.

Paul knows he's down to the second, nice and quiet. The horse is a good look for him, which is great for this fella, because what he didn't do over hurdles was look.

If he flicked the hurdle or got a little fright, his first instinct was to run, and run as fast as he could.

He couldn't win the big, big races because of it. But I think he could be a better chaser than he is a hurdler. He was a hurdler, but I'd say Willie Mullins was very, very happy with this result.

I thought this was very interesting going down to this fence. You can see Paul Townend has switched the stick to his right hand and pulled him out a little bit to get a bit of room, but watch: the horse goes from settled to actually bolting to the fence.

If you watch Paul's body language here, all of a sudden you can see him go “Oh!”, and the horse launches.

When I say launched, he took off a little bit too early, and you know what? It was the best thing he could have done, because he goes down to the next and doesn't grab hold of the bridle. He actually shows a little bit of respect.

So that fence away from the stands has calmed this fella down.

It might sound silly, but as a rider in a novice chase, if you have a keen horse, sometimes you want to get them to have a little fright.

This fella is the type of horse who is hard enough to take a fright. When I say a fright, you want them to say, “Oh, that was a bit wrong,” or “Oh, that was a little bit scary.”

They go down to the next jump, give it a little bit more respect, start thinking about what they're doing, and start listening to the rider.

So in this horse's whole career, he probably listened to a rider for half a race and then decided, “I'm the boss,” and did what he wanted, and the hurdle was too small to slow him down.

But he listened and he learned there, which was brilliant to see, because as I said, the ability this guy has is amazing. But he's always got a little quirk.

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Keep your eye on this horse when he's racing at that really, really fast pace. Watch how far left he goes at the last.

Paul is going down to it, he switched his lead there, and he's not going to meet it spot on, but his thing is the shimmy left to meet it spot on. Really good horses can do that going straight.

This horse has always had quirks. He's always been a horse that one day could be absolutely exceptional, and the next day he could be unrideable.

Once he starts going up in grade, that could well be a factor in him winning big, big races and losing big races.

But I'd say the Willie Mullins camp is delighted with him, because he actually showed a bit of respect and raced like a proper racehorse.

I think this lad is far above average. It's unbelievable. I think the ability he has is no end, and time suggests the same in that beginners' chase.

We'll be looking back in a few years and saying that was a good race.

That little bit of shimmying left, can you forgive him? I can for the minute. I think his talent could probably get him out of a hole.

I really like the way he raced in general, compared to his hurdling. If he takes to this game, this guy is super talented and the world is his oyster.