Supreme Novices Hurdle review: Cinders And Ashes

Following a vintage renewal in 2011 the Supreme Novices Hurdle was unlikely to reach those heights in 2012 and the lack of stars in the 2 mile division backed this up. Cinders And Ashes was in the end a good winner but the way the race panned out left the impression that it was no better than an average running of the Festival curtain raiser.

Traditionally run at a frenetic early pace, this time the field was taken along at a steady gallop by the eventual winner’s stablemate Agent Archie. The pace gradually quickened and Jason Maguire was well placed on the inside on Cinders And Ashes. Donald McCain’s son of Beat Hollow had marked his career so far with fluent, quick jumping but there was the exception at Ascot where he made that horror mistake which cost him the race. At Cheltenham his jumping was slick on the whole but he again made a significant early error, at the fourth. Fortunately for connections and supporters he had enough speed to recover quickly and despite being squeezed up against the rail at one point and another, quite serious, blunder at the last he held off AP McCoy in full flow aboard Darlan to record a one-and-a-quarter length victory.

Cinders And Ashes is evidently a horse with any amount of pace and the trainer’s assertion that he will be trained for the Champion Hurdle looks to be the right one. He will need to cut out the serious errors he seems capable of throwing into his races but with experience he should be able to seeing as, in general, his jumping is an asset. Another asset for the future would be his ability to handle any ground, as shown by his win here on quick ground and two victories in, admittedly weak races, on soft/heavy going.

It is possible to mark up his victory in the Supreme when one includes his last flight error but I see it differently as Montbazon made a similar one, as well as others, as did Darlan who landed flat footed, while Trifolium was slow at the second last. This list of errors from the front 4 suggests the race lacked real depth and were Cinders And Ashes to be a Champion Hurdle contender one would have hoped for a similar performance to that of Simonsig the following day. Improvement is expected, of course, but I would be surprised if he could improve enough to challenge the likes of Rock On Ruby and Spirit Son in 2013.