The prospect of a horse owned by the controversial peer Baroness Michelle Mone setting off as one of the favourites for the Grand National moved a step closer last night when the British Horseracing Authority said that it had confirmed that Monbeg Genius, currently a 20-1 shot for the race on 13 April, is not affected by a “freezing” order on £75m of assets belonging to Mone and her husband, Doug Barrowman.
Mone and Barrowman are being investigated by the National Crime Agency (NCA) over their links to the company PPE Medpro, which was awarded government contracts worth £202m during the Covid-19 pandemic. The government has also initiated proceedings to recover £122m, plus costs, from PPE Medpro after some of the equipment supplied allegedly fell below the required standard.
Monbeg Genius was bought by Mone as a second wedding present for her husband in November 2020 for £80,000. When details of the “freezing” order, which was issued in December, emerged in late January, there was uncertainty over whether Monbeg Genius was covered by its terms, but a fortnight later the BHA has finally established that this is not the case.
The Authority said in a statement on Friday afternoon: “The BHA can confirm that horses in the ownership of Barrowman Racing Ltd are not affected by the restraint order and are therefore permitted to continue to race.”
Meanwhile, the likely favourite for a highly competitive Betfair Hurdle today is Willie Mullins’s Ocastle Des Mottes, making his debut for jumping’s most powerful stable after a big-money move from France last summer. However, there is nothing in his French form to suggest that he is a blot on the weights and he faces plenty of opponents that have run to similar, or better, marks in recent months.
The abandonment of the scheduled meetings at Warwick and Uttoxeter on Saturday leaves only Newbury’s card in the prime mid-afternoon slot and just four races on the ITV racing schedule, but that should at least allow punters to spend more time poring over the Betfair Hurdle at 3.15, which is as competitive and beguiling as ever.
This year’s renewal of Britain’s most valuable handicap hurdle also has a copybook dark horse at the top of the betting in Willie Mullins’s Ocastle Des Mottes, who is priced up at around 6-1 to make a winning debut for jumping’s most powerful stable after a big-money move from France last summer.
As such, he has a similar profile to Mullins’s Gaelic Warrior before his run in the juvenile handicap hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in 2022, when he started at 13-8, the shortest price for any runner in a modern-day Festival handicap – and finished a short-head second to Brazil.
Gaelic Warrior went on to win four of final five starts over hurdles including a Grade One at Punchestown and a handicap, easily, off 143, so he was clearly thrown in at Cheltenham off 129. But he still did not get the job done, which is perhaps a sign that new recruits may need a run or two to get to accustomed to the hurly-burly of such an ultra-competitive race.
We may look back in three months’ time and see Ocastle Des Mottes as the handicap snip of the season, but on balance, he feels like one to oppose ahead of Saturday’s race, as there is nothing in his French form to suggest that he is a blot on the weights off 133 and he faces plenty of opponents that have run to similar, or better, marks in recent months.
There are, of course, a long list of alternatives, but the recent rain, which has turned the going to heavy, also needs to be taken into account and Spirit D’Aunou (3.15), who can be backed at around 9-1, was a winner on similar ground at Sandown in December.
Newbury 12.55 Making Headway 1.30 Emitom (nb) 2.05 Shishkin 2.40 Boothill 3.15 Spirit D’Aunou (nap) 3.50 Hitching Jacking 4.25 Union Avenue
Newcastle 3.35 Gold Aura 4.10 Rubellite 4.45 Beneficiary 5.15 Jungle Charm 5.45 Twirler 6.15 Chapman 6.45 Herakles 7.15 Bossy Parker 7.45 Pop Favorite
Wolverhampton 5.30 English Spirit 6.00 Charlatan 6.30 Torrent 7.00 Intervention 7.30 She’s Centimental 8.00 Liseo 8.30 Always Fearless
Gary Moore, twice a winner of this race in the past, has seemingly kept the lightly-raced five-year-old fresh since that win with this race in mind, he led on the bit at Sandown last time and while he is up another 10lb in the ratings, the excellent Caolinn Quinn takes off 3lb.
Lingfield: 1.27 Mick’s Spirit, 1.57 Unavailable, 2.27 Sennockian, 2.57 Repartee, 3.27 The Bunt, 3.57 Kento, 4.27 Stopnsearch.
Exeter: 2.05 Trelawne, 2.35 Lowry's Bar, 3.05 Favour And Fortune (nb), 3.35 Hititi, 4.05 Galia Des Liteaux (nap), 4.35 Run To Milan, 5.05 Clap Of Thunder.
Elsewhere on the ITV card, Shishkin (2.05) takes his Timeform squiggle into the fray in the Grade Denman Chase, but while he should have enough class to win, he makes little appeal at odds-on.
Boothill (2.40), though, is worth an interest to atone for a fall when still in contention at Kempton last time, while the form of Emitom’s (1.30) win at Ludlow last month was franked when the winner followed up in a valuable race at Sandown last weekend.
