Black Jack Cruises To Aintree Success

Jonjo O'Neill reached a century for the season in some style as Black Jack Ketchum extended his unbeaten sequence to seven with a most impressive success in the Citroen C6 Sefton Novices' Hurdle at Aintree.

The seven-year-old travelled and jumped well for champion jockey Tony McCoy and taking a slight advantage at the second-last, he soon eased clear to score by five lengths from Money Trix, with long-time leader Neptune Collonges a further half-length away in third.

The 8-13 winner is best priced at 4-1 with Cashmans for the Ladbroke World Hurdle at the 2007 Cheltenham Festival, and O'Neill, who trains him for Gay Smith, said: 'He did everything nice, he is just a good horse.'

When asked how good, he added with a smile: 'How good do you want him to be, he is the best I have had, but until he gets beaten ? though I hope he never gets beat ? just to keep him sound is the best thing, you know.

'I don't care what price he is for the World Hurdle, as long as he gets there he will give them all a run won't he, but it is a long time to Cheltenham and anything can happen between now and then.

'But going on everything he has done he would go there with a bit of confidence.

'He is such a good horse to do anything with, even a kid could ride him at home, mind you when you are working him some mornings you would be worried, he is so slow home, you would be anxious and before Cheltenham he was working so bad that we put the blinkers on him one morning just to see where he was going ? mind you morning glories are no good!'

McCoy said: 'He has a great attitude and you can put him anywhere you want to in a race, he did it very well, but you would have expected him to after the way he won at Cheltenham.

'He's quite happy for you to do what you want him to do. He doesn't do anything flash.

'Whatever he's going to do in the future, he's an exceptionally good novice. When we got to the last hurdle I knew he was going to be an impressive winner again.

'I don't know what Jonjo will do with him next season. He does nothing at home and saves it all for the track. He's very athletic and very intelligent. We've a long way to go, he's still a novice and has a long way to go.'

Nicky Richards, trainer of Money Trix, said: 'He has been beaten by a very high-class horse and hopefully my horse will be high-class as well one day.

'I hope Jonjo keeps his over hurdles next season and we will go over fences.

'If he runs once more this time it will be at Perth at the end of the month and then we will wait for next season.

'He has a great heart. I know the other horse was outclassing him but he kept rolling to the line.'

Paul Nicholls, who trains Neptune Collonges, added: 'The winner is obviously a star and he will probably win the World Hurdle next year.

'But for a year when we have just been marking time before going over fences, you can't be too disappointed.'

? PA Sport