Rubi Lights Up Punchestown
A big bet came in for The Judge at the weekend, so my betting blog will mull over the action and provide some gambling advice for the rest of the Jumps Season.
The Grade 1 John Durkan Chase at Punchestown on Sunday saw an impressive win for Rubi Light. This exciting young chaser seemed to have a big future when finishing a gallant third in last season’s Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham, and he confirmed himself a potential star with a comfortable 5 length win from Joncol.
Conditions were testing and this led to a very steady pace being set by Cooldine, but Andrew Lynch had Rubi Light in a prominent position, took it up just after the halfway stage before asserting from 3 out after another fluent leap. Joncol closed from between the last two flights but never looked like seriously challenging and this performance confirms Rubi Light as safely the best 2m 4f Chaser in Ireland.
Of the future, his handler Robbie Hennessy intends to aim Rubi Light at the Lexus Chase run over Christmas at Leopardstown, but that will be a new test for the 6 year old, having never raced over 3m before. His Pedigree gives out a lot of hope that he will stay and his performance there will go a long way to helping his connections decide on future targets with the Cheltenham Gold Cup being whispered quietly. The Lexus has the look of being a very tough race, even after the announced retirement of Denman, where he will cross swords with another exceptionally talented young chaser in Quito De La Roque and Joncol looks set to re-oppose over a trip he excels at.
All this leads me to believe he will be vulnerable to a stronger stayer, at this stage of his career and to my mind he may be a Gold Cup horse in the future, but for now he should be kept to the shorter trip. Indeed The Judge has had a small ante-post punt on him for the Ryanair Chase as I am confident his connections will wait another year before targeting the Gold Cup.
If Rubi Light’s long term targets are a subject of debate at this stage, one thing that is certain is his considerable talent and potential to be a superstar of this and many a Jumps Season.
