Ballyburn’s Brown Advisory

Lots of pundits are writing off Ballyburn after his defeat by Sir Gino at Kempton over Christmas. I’m not one of them.

My attempt to explain the race is that it was like a 100m sprint final at the Olympics, between a 100m superstar and a 400m superstar. The 100m star is going to win his own race, but that doesn’t mean the 400m superstar isn’t the best 400m runner in the world.

Sir Gino is deadly over two miles. Ballyburn has the speed to be competitive against most horses at that trip, but was never going to trouble Sir Gino over that distance. Ballyburn needs further. Just last year, at the Cheltenham Festival, he was a very short price favourite for the Supreme Novices Hurdle before trainer Willie Mullins decided he was better suited going for the Ballymore over 2m5. Of course Ballyburn hacked up. That should tell us all we need to know.

This horse is already a Cheltenham winner over hurdles of course in the afore mentioned Ballymore, but I think the best could actually be yet to come.

Ballyburn has course form. He has always looked every inch a chaser apparently, something that was said as he was still over hurdles. I haven’t seen anything wrong with his jumping in his chasing starts to date. He has speed yet stays well. The step up in trip to 3 miles will play to his strengths.

A second successive Cheltenham Festival win – and a successful step up in trip to 3 miles to win the Brown Advisory – appears not only plausible but probable. He’s 7/2 to do just that. Not a huge price, but it could look very generous on the day.

Selection: Ballyburn, Brown Advisory, 2025 Cheltenham Festival, 7/2.

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