Sean Flanagan’s William Hill blog: Now Is The Hour for Hartur D’arc

Sunday, Cork

Tranquil Sea (1.10pm)

It is an ideal piece of placing by the Paul (Nolan) and his team. He was a very slow horse to start off with, and his jumping was very careful, but he has really come good. His placed form that he has is good enough to win this race. He is a grand, honest horse, that does everything well. It has just taken him a while to get his backside into gear, and to realise how everything works, but he seems like he has got there now. We are happy enough with him and he is in good form.

Clarens (1.45pm)

You would be doing well to get a place here what with Sir Gerhard, Call Me Lyreen and Sempo in there. He has little snippets of okay form if you go back to his run when he was second at Navan behind Gordon Elliott’s horse (Fortunedefortunata), but realistically he is probably 40lbs wrong with Sir Gerhard, and he has massive work to do. We will ride him to try and nick as much as we can and see how we go.

Now Is The Hour (2.55pm)

He is a real chaser in the making, but he is a Grade Two novice hurdle winner. It is an interesting move by Gavin (Cromwell), but I suppose there is method to his madness. His form is there to win the race. He has got a really high cruising speed, and he really relishes heavy ground. Everything just fell into place for him on the day at Haydock. He is the form horse in the race and although others have bits of form to their name none would be in the same park as Now Is The Hour over the last couple of runs.

The drop back in trip isn’t so much of a worry on real testing ground as did win over an extended two and a half miles at Fairyhouse. I know he is coming back another half a mile again from that run, but on testing ground, and over a fence, it will slow everything down a bit more for him. It might not be as much as a negative as you would think it would be compared to if he was jumping a hurdle. He is an ex point-to-pointer, so he would have jumped lots of fences before going over hurdles. When I rode him for the first time he jumped hurdles like a lad that would jump fences better as he doesn’t pay much respect to hurdles, although he did jump his hurdles better the last day. I’ve had a couple of spins on him since winning on him at Haydock and he seems in good form.

Lucid Dreams (3.30pm)

Lucid Dreams is really only starting out his career as he only had his first run as an eight year old. He is a fine big looking horse. Funnily enough his last win came in a match race at Navan. That day he popped out and made the running which is a big plus as he knows his job in small runner fields. He is a one paced horse, but he stays really well, and I can jump out and dictate my own pace.  Asterion Forlonge has his jumping flaws, and it is not as cut and dry as you might think. I think the further he will go the better he will be. Asterion Forlonge was sixth in the Stayers’ Hurdle the last day, but he was beaten a good enough distance. He is not the most fantastic jumper of a fence, and he might just need everything to go his own way to win.

Monday, Fairyhouse

Single Edition (2.05pm)

He is coming off the back of a long lay off, but he has little bits of form to his name. He did win a bumper at Down Royal on his second start, but he has struggled a bit since. We will be feeling the ground with him and then we can go from there. He is a very forward going horse which might not be ideal at Fairyhouse on heavy ground. He needs to learn to settle and relax. He is a very gassy horse, and he is going to have rein it back in here on heavy ground. He has only got 10st 5lbs on his back which will be a help to him, but it is not a bad little race.

Hartur D’arc (5.00pm)

There is very little to separate him and his stablemate Yeah Man, who I won the Grand National Trial on at Haydock. Keith (Donoghue) and I had a little chat about it the other day and we couldn’t find much between them. The only difference I think is that most of Yeah Man’s recent form is in the UK and Hartur D’arc’s is in Ireland. He has only had a couple of runs for Gavin (Cromwell). He won at Clonmel on very testing ground over two and a half miles then we stepped him up to the extended three miles at Naas and he has really relished that. Gavin was a little bit worried if he would stay that day, but he has done everything well and stayed on strongly. I think going up in trip here won’t be a problem, and if anything it will be a plus. He is a classy horse, and you can ride him to get this trip. He is a young horse with young legs and hopefully he can continue his upward curve here.