The team here at Folly House are really looking forward to Dans Le Vent lining up in his first Grade 1, the Betfred Challow Novices’ Hurdle, at Newbury tomorrow at 3pm.
The son of SKINS GAME, and a half-brother to the late Grade 2 winning Chancol (VANGELIS), Dans Le Vent was a dual bumper winner and 6th in the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival last season, and hasn’t finished outside of the top three in his three novice hurdles this season. He continues to improve every time, winning his last start at Market Rasen over 2m2½f on Good to Soft ground. His most competitive novice hurdle to date was in the Class 3 Maiden Hurdle on the first day of Cheltenham’s Showcase Meeting whereby he maintained a good pace and held on gamely up the infamous Cheltenham hill, finishing second behind eventual winner Slate House, winner of the Grade 2 Sky Bet Supreme Trial Novices’ Hurdle just over three weeks later.
We are really pleased with Dans Le Vent’s work at home as he continues to do everything we ask of him. He has improved from every run and the step up in trip tomorrow can only help. The heavy ground is a bit of an unknown but he has shown form on soft ground at Newbury when finishing third in a Listed Bumper in February. He deserves to run in Graded company and seems to rise to the occasion as he’s run his best races to date in the most competitive races he’s contested! You have to be in it to win it and I am really looking forward to seeing him perform at the top level.
Our team continues to enjoy a successful season so far, with 19 wins from 106 runners resulting in a strike rate of 18%. Considering we celebrated our best season in 2016-17 with 25 wins from 206 runners, we are in a good position now to hopefully better that.
With January approaching fast we are starting to have a clearer picture of our Road To Cheltenham and we are looking forward to starting the New Year with runners on New Year’s Day.
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