Panther hunting Grade One glory at Leopardstown

Eddie and Patrick Harty’s Irish Panther has a Grade One target in his sights after an impressive chasing debut last month.

The eight-year-old was a useful hurdler who started this season over those obstacles with a 31-length triumph at Clonmel, after which he ran over fences for the first time at Naas in early November.

Contesting a two-mile beginners’ event, Irish Panther jumped with aplomb and gave connections every reason to to dream big with an eight-length success against 15 rivals to line up a Racing Post Novice Chase bid at Leopardstown on December 26.

“He’s in great form, we’ve always thought a lot of him in fairness,” said co-trainer Eddie Harty of the gelding.

“He showed us that in Clonmel, he was entitled to win well and we’d been really looking forward to getting him over fences.

“He’s always looked like a chaser in the making and we couldn’t have been happier with what we saw at Naas and we’ll go straight to the Racing Post Chase at Leopardstown on St Stephen’s Day.

“He was quite free last year and we just had to manage that a bit, it may just have been the change in scenery but he is more amenable and is getting more professional in his racing.

“We never had an anxious moment so we’re looking forward to St Stephen’s Day and seeing what he’s made of.

“He’s going to be in at the deep end but there’s nothing else for us to run him in and he jumped so well at Naas that we’re not really needing a run to improve on that.”

Irish Panther, who was previously trained by Edward O’Grady, had a productive hurdling campaign last season and was only out of the money once when 10th in the County Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

“He was bought for his owners to have a horse that will campaign at the bigger meetings and he did that last year,” Harty continued.

“He ran with great credit at Leopardstown and Punchestown and at the Cheltenham Festival the race just wasn’t run to suit him – 99 years out of 100 you expect them to go flat out in the County Hurdle and they crawled.

“He’s passed his first chasing test with flying colours and we’ve decided to throw him in at the deep end but I think he’s well capable of it.”