Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning rider Barry Geraghty thinks Mares’ Chase favorite may come unstuck on the Cheltenham Festival until she brushes up on her leaping method.
The six-year-old once more proved a lot too good for her rivals final weekend in a Grade Two novice chase at Thurles, however not with no main scare on the first fence, when diving out to her proper and virtually unseating jockey Paul Townend within the course of.
The Willie Mullins-trained mare would go on to win simply regardless of some cumbersome leaps, with some bookmakers reducing her into as brief as 5/4 for the Mares’ Chase at Cheltenham.
But Geraghty was nowhere close to as satisfied by the efficiency, feeling her method must enhance if she goes to justify her brief value.
“She is a superb mare and does have scope however her method wants a bit of labor,” Geraghty instructed the Off The Fence podcast.
“Willie talked about that with the frost they have not been in a position to give her a pop at residence so lots of that can be observe.
“Paul will not have had a good maintain of her head and he wished to get her to chill out however being so relaxed might need simply left her in two minds and he or she guessed on the first.
“Going out to her proper is not going to be a assist, particularly towards extra skilled opposition.
“Scarlet And Dove has 15 runs over fences so you possibly can think about her respiration down her neck, making use of stress, and Elimay the identical factor.
“It’s going to be a battle for her out in entrance and I’m positive they’d be joyful to take a lead and trip her like a novice.”
At The Races pundit Tony Keenan agreed with Geraghty, including that hardened chasers in Scarlet And Dove and defending champion Elimay can be placing stress on Allegorie De Vassy, particularly if leaping errors creep into her effort.
“Her leaping can be a reasonably sizable fear,” he mentioned. “She was fully unpressured within the lead which actually is not going to be the case at Cheltenham.
“She’s going to be up towards two strong 150-rated mares from Ireland anyway in Impervious and Scarlet And Dove and I’d be pretty positive they’re at that mark.
“She might need extra brilliance than them, she was actually sturdy on the line on Sunday and has luggage of capacity.
“But her leaping is suspect and all 4 of her begins have been right-handed and he or she was inclined to do this in France as properly so it should be an attention-grabbing race.
“I believe it is a respectable race and properly price having.”
