Grade Two Moscow Flyer Novice Hurdle Guide 2023

Hey Johnny looks to have an absolute mountain to climb here, to put it bluntly. He’s failed to complete on his last two efforts, but he did win prior to that in a competitive handicap at Clonmel off a mark of 100.

That is nowhere near enough in this company against genuine graded horses. He’ll likely be ridden to pick up the pieces, but given there’s not much pace on – even that looks a tall order.

Seriously unlikely.

The Model Kingdom has always shown herself to be pretty classy. She won three from three when competing in bumpers last year, including a G3 bumper.

She made a good start to life as a hurdler when winning easily at Tipperary, and she was probably a shade unlucky to finish third next time out at Down Royal.

She improved again to beat the well fancied Halibut next time out at Punchestown, with a huge gap back to the third. She did put up a below par effort (by her standards) last time out at Thurles – but I’d be happy enough to forgive her.

She’s clearly a very useful mare, but there doesn’t seem to be a lot of pace on here, and she comes from off the pace. She will have to improve, and overcome unfavourable conditions to win, she’s a lot on her plate, but she’s a good chance.

C’est Rien is still a maiden, and let’s be honest, she’s had many chances to shed the tag – it’s borderline impossible to see that happening here too!

She’s ran moderately well on a few starts, but she’s been behind The Model Kingdom already and she doesn’t look likely to reverse that form, and even if she does – is that enough?

She’s outclassed here and she’ll be looking to pick up the scraps.

I’m desperately trying not to draw a parallel from her name to her form, but.. she really could be anything! She’s only had the three stars (1 P2P) and she’s won all three.

She won her point in good style, likewise her bumper – and then she made a winning start to life as a hurdler at Limerick last time out.

She beat Hauturiere, who’s probably a fair animal herself, but Shecouldbeanything was firmly in control. She steps up in class here but it isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that she could be up to winning this. Interesting. 

Impaire Et Passe is probably the horse to beat in here – as he was hugely impressive when winning by 18L at Naas. He won on his only start in France (1m4F AQPS race) by 6L, pretty easily too, so we’re yet to see him off the bridle.

He was maybe a shade keen there though so you’d like to see him settle better, but he was deeply impressive and really hard to fault. He probably has a good bit more potential than most in here and he’s far more unexposed.

Hugely exciting.