Three Performances Of The Weekend In Britain And Ireland

On a week that saw some serious performances we have managed to whittle it down to the three best in our eyes and the first one is the Alan King trained Sceau Royal in the Grade Two Elite Hurdle.

The eight year old has been tried over both hurdles and fences during his career and although winning races like the Shloer Chase and Henry VIII Novices Chase over the bigger obstacles, last term he showed that he was not good enough at the top level.

This has now seen his handler move him back to hurdles and it looks to be the right move off the back of his seasonal debut and win in this race on his two starts to date.

Landing the Welsh Champion Hurdle, he went off as the odds on favourite for the Wincanton event and under a clever ride by Daryl Jacob, he cruised to victory.

Although there was some other stand out performances in England we move on to Navan on Sunday where the card showed the return of some of jump racings superstars.

One of them was the Gordon Elliott trained Sire De Berlais, who over the last two years has built himself up as one of the best handicap staying hurdlers in racing.

The JP McManus owned hurdler, has landed the Pertemps Handicap Hurdle for the last two seasons at the Cheltenham festival and this season his connections has bigger plans.

Having showed he was a graded horses in handicaps over the last few seasons, he stepped up to the Grade Two Lismullen Hurdle at Navan on Sunday and got better the further he went in the race.

Coming up the line he stayed on best of the rest to take the event and now Elliott is planning a go at The Stayers' Hurdle at the festival in March.

Finally, the third spot goes to The Jam Man for well known Irish trainer Ronan McNally who has been known over the years for landing big gambles with his horses.

Another, one took place on Sunday when his seven year old was pitched into the big fielded Troytown Handicap Chase and after being smashed into 5/2 favourite in a race with more than 20 runners, he went on to win like an odds on shot.

Under a superb ride from Paul Townend the gelding cruised round and went on to land the race by 18 lengths, which is one of the biggest margins seen in the races history.

He will be heavily penalised by the handicapper, but the horse will be seen again this term over either hurdles or fences and is one to keep on side.