Hurricane Pat sweeps to Sandown success for in-form Moore team

Gary and Josh Moore’s dream spell at Sandown continued on Saturday when Hurricane Pat played himself into the Cheltenham Festival equation with a facile victory in the opening Betfair Exchange Claremont Novices’ Hurdle.

An impressive course-and-distance scorer last month, the five-year-old was sent off 7-2 in the Listed event and with Philip Hobbs and Johnson White’s heavy favourite Sober Glory failing to live up to his reputation, Hurricane Pat was left to saunter home to a five-and-a-half-length success over Dan Skelton’s Cheltenham winner Soldier Reeves.

Josh Moore said: “He’s won very impressively and I was quite confident when we made the entry this was the right race on paper.

“It was a very good race on paper but he did a very nice piece of work last week and that was enough to bring him here. I was thinking he might want further but the work was with the horse that won here yesterday, Macktoad, and he kind of made me think two miles would be for him.

“We always thought he might want better ground as well, so today was a bit of a worry but Caoilin (Quinn, jockey) seemed to think he was better on this ground today.

“He was a nice horse last year but he has strengthened up a lot over the summer and his mind has grown up as well, he’s taking everything in his stride nicely. He won his two bumpers and we’ve been very patient with him and he’s paid his way now over hurdles.”

Hurricane Pat was introduced into the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle market at 25-1 by Paddy Power, with connections entitled to start dreaming of the future.

Moore added: “He’s won a Listed race so he’s obviously got potential. We’ll see how he comes out of today because he is a horse we can’t over race.

“You have to think along the lines of the Supreme and whether or not that might be a bit much for him we’ll find out. We can certainly gear towards that all the same.

“It’s a shame the Tolworth isn’t here and there is always Aintree (Formby Novices’ Hurdle). If the Tolworth had been here we would definitely be here. He’s won that so nicely though that I wouldn’t be in a rush to run again.”

Joe Tizzard’s team are also in form and his hot streak continued when 11-8 favourite Sunset Marquesa built on her Exeter return to record an emphatic six-and-a-half-length verdict in the Betfair Supports Racing With Pride Mares’ Handicap Hurdle.

Tizzard said: “She did it nicely and when the race cut up a bit I did fancy her to go and do that.

“It was impressive and this was the right race today. She will get jacked up a few (pounds) and then we’ll have a good look. I was thinking driving up this morning if she goes and wins how I hope I don’t have a plan, but I will in the morning.”

Hobbs and White will continue to plot a hurdling course with Kikijo after the improving 9-4 joint-favourite built on his recent Cheltenham success with a hard-fought victory in the Pertemps Network Handicap Hurdle.

Hobbs said: “He’s a bit unusual as with a horse like him you would be thinking of going novice chasing next year, but he’s already won a chase at Newbury last year so that is not an option.

“I suppose having won two hurdle races he will probably run in another one. It gets more difficult now obviously and after winning two in a row, it’s not too often they win three. But we might just have to try to find another handicap hurdle somewhere on a stiff track with testing ground like here.

“We may have blown his mark for the Final but he’s only a young horse and could improve. The Pertemps Final wasn’t necessarily a plan and there will be a lot of Irish horses coming over and we might just have to take what we can.

“For this partnership we quite possibly could run in the Final, but I wouldn’t be thinking with the likely good ground in the spring it would be our main aim – he might run it though, why not.”