Hurricane Pat Sweeps To Sandown Success For In-form Moore Team

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


An excellent course-and-distance scorer last month, the five-year-old was sent 7-2 in the Listed occasion and with Philip Hobbs and Johnson White's heavy preferred Sober Glory stopping working to measure up to his track record, 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 stated: "He's won very remarkably and I was quite positive when we made the entry this was the right race on paper.


"It was a great race on paper however he did an extremely great piece of work recently and that sufficed to bring him here. I was believing he may desire additional however the work was with the horse that won here yesterday, Macktoad, and he kind of made me believe 2 miles would be for him.


"We always believed he might desire better ground as well, so today was a little a worry however Caoilin (Quinn, jockey) appeared to believe he was better on this ground today.


"He was a good horse in 2015 however he has enhanced up a lot over the summertime and his mind has grown up also, he's taking everything in his stride nicely. He won his two bumpers and we've been extremely patient with him and he's paid his way now over difficulties."


Hurricane Pat impressed at Sandown (John Walton/PA)


Hurricane Pat was presented into the Supreme Novices' Hurdle market at 25-1 by Paddy Power, with connections entitled to start imagining the future.


Moore added: "He's won a Listed race so he's clearly got capacity. We'll see how he comes out of today since he is a horse we can't over race.


"You have to believe along the lines of the Supreme and whether or not that might be a bit much for him we'll discover. We can certainly gear towards that all the exact same.


"It's an embarassment the Tolworth isn't here and there is always Aintree (Formby Novices' Hurdle). If the Tolworth had been here we would absolutely be here. He's won that so well though that I would not remain in a rush to run once again."


Joe Tizzard's group are likewise in form and his hot streak continued when 11-8 favourite Sunset Marquesa built on her Exeter return to tape-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 elegant her to go and do that.


"It was remarkable and this was the ideal race today. She will get jacked up a few (pounds) and then we'll have a great look. I was believing increasing today if she goes and wins how I hope I do not have a plan, but I will in the morning."


Hobbs and White will continue to outline a hurdling course with Kikijo after the improving 9-4 joint-favourite developed on his current Cheltenham success with a success in the Pertemps Network Handicap Hurdle.


Hobbs said: "He's a bit uncommon similar to a horse like him you would be considering going novice chasing next year, however he's currently won a chase at Newbury in 2015 so that is not a choice.


"I expect having won two difficulty races he will most likely run in another one. It gets harder now obviously and after winning 2 in a row, it's not frequently they win 3. But we may simply have to search for another handicap difficulty somewhere on a stiff track with testing ground like here.


"We may have blown his mark for the Final but he's just a young horse and might improve. The Pertemps Final wasn't always a plan and there will be a lot of Irish horses coming by and we may just need to take what we can.


"For this partnership we rather potentially 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 may run it however, why not."