2026 Champion Chase

[Carnage at Taunton]

Thistleask must surely take his chance after today. Hope he doesn't really as he and Maj would have a right ding dong up front.

After seeing such an impressive performance and emphatic win, don’t really want to change their minds do they?

 

[Lobos]

After seeing such an impressive performance and emphatic win, don’t really want to change their minds do they?

More thinking he could be best of the rest ?

Wonder if Bon Jovi will go CC now as well?

 

[darlojim]

Wonder if Bon Jovi will go CC now as well?

Why would todays performance enhance the chance of JP sending Jonbon here?

 

[Quevega]

Why would todays performance enhance the chance of JP sending Jonbon here?

It does in @Lobos world.

 

[darlojim]

It does in @Lobos world.

Alexei Champ hdle
Jonbon CC
Kala Conti BANC

the Lobos treble

 

[BigL]

Majborough...what a performance

 

[Lobos]

Alexei Champ hdle
Jonbon CC
Kala Conti BANC

the Lobos treble

Just think if Kala Conti would have won yesterday and after today's performance from FD she'd be single figures !

Next year Rodney

 

[darlojim]

Just think if Kala Conti would have won yesterday and after today's performance from FD she'd be single figures !

Next year Rodney

'Mares if anything'

 

[Lobos]

'Mares if anything'

Nothing I reckon

 

[Carnage at Taunton]

More thinking he could be best of the rest ?

Wonder if Bon Jovi will go CC now as well?

I’d say it’s more likely to keep Jonbon Ryanair bound

 

[Durham Edition]

I’d say it’s more likely to keep Jonbon Ryanair bound

Is Jonbon even going to the festival have they confirmed it? I thought it sounded like they were going to have another race then go to Aintree but can't remeber the quote.

 

[Odddog]

Timeform allot Majborough a chase rating of 179.

 

[Carnage at Taunton]

Is Jonbon even going to the festival have they confirmed it? I thought it sounded like they were going to have another race then go to Aintree but can't remeber the quote.

They mentioned Ascot this month as a possible and then see . Nothing set in stone though.
So yes it’s possible he skips Chelt because of timing and goes Aintree I guess.
JP though would want him at the festival I imagine and probably his team will have a big say. He’s a fair back up to either Maj or FTF imo.

 

[jrjr]

They mentioned Ascot this month as a possible and then see . Nothing set in stone though.
So yes it’s possible he skips Chelt because of timing and goes Aintree I guess.
JP though would want him at the festival I imagine and probably his team will have a big say. He’s a fair back up to either Maj or FTF imo.

I got the impression that Cheltenham was the plan. Ascot was a possible stepping stone rather than Ascot/Aintree being an alternative to Cheltenham.

 

[Eggs]

….SL Graham North;

Majborough soars to big DRF number​

If there is one horse from the opening day who should have little trouble going on to follow up at Cheltenham if historical pointers are any guide it is Majborough, whose 179 performance rating in the Grade 1 Ladbrokes Dublin Chase if repeated in the Champion Chase in six weeks’ time would have won him every renewal since Altior in 2018 - and with some ease too.

That 179 performance is fully backed up by the clock; worth 179 too, a timefigure that is the best recorded in the history of the Dublin Racing Festival, eclipsing the 176 and 174 Chacun Pour Soi recorded in the same race and is the second-best timefigure at around two miles (behind Altior’s 180) since Timeform started returning timefigures over jumps.

The brilliant Chacun Pour Soi never got near his best form at Cheltenham (or at Sandown in his only other hop across the Irish Sea, seeming to me unsuited by the fences coming up in much more rapid succession than the evenly-spaced ones in Ireland) but Majborough has already won at the Festival, albeit over hurdles in the 2024 Triumph, and was beaten less than a length in the muddling 2025 Arkle despite all but coming down two-out after several earlier scruffy jumps.

Majborough hadn't been foot perfect in either of his two races before the Dublin Chase this season, the Hilly Way at Cork and the Paddy’s Rewards Club Chase here at Christmas, but the application of cheekpieces for the first time finally unlocked the ability that he’d often hinted had been there if he put it all together and he reversed Rewards Club form with last year’s Champion Chase winner Marine Nationale and Hilly Way winner Found A Fifty in no uncertain terms, passing the post 19 lengths clear in what was the largest winning margin in the race after the 12-length routs by Min in 2018 and Chacun Pour Soi in 2022.

If there’s reason to be cautious regarding his Cheltenham prospects it might be that he’s unlikely to be allowed quite as much rope at Cheltenham (a course where Marine Nationale is unbeaten) as he was at Leopardstown which is known as something of a front-runners track, and there's always the question of whether the headgear will work just as well again. We shall see.

 

[EnvoiAlien]

Brighterdaysahead ran her best ever race at the DRF last season before her CH race, tough to back those types of runs up next time out, I'll be a little wary of Maj & F2F because of this.

 

[Quevega]

Brighterdaysahead ran her best ever race at the DRF last season before her CH race, tough to back those types of runs up next time out, I'll be a little wary of Maj & F2F because of this.

Was at xmas BDA ran.

 

[EnvoiAlien]

D'oh.....

 

[Kauto’s star]

D'oh.....

But that run was scintillating so the effects would’ve lasted longer (good save). Fair point though. Also not sure whether FTF is the most consistent at backing up runs anyway.

 

[Kauto’s star]

D'oh.....

But that run was scintillating so the effects would’ve lasted longer (good save). Fair point though. Also not sure whether FTF is the most consistent at backing up runs anyway.