Philip Fenton's Last Instalment will have his first run for nearly 2 years at Thurles next week as he looks to get his career back on track after a wretched series of injuries. Last Instalment was unbeaten as a novice chaser, winning 4 races including the Grade 2 Florida Pearl Novice Chase and two Grade 1 Novice Chases (the Fort Leney and the Dr P.J. Moriaty, both at Leoprdstown). This taken from Sporting Life's feature on the Cheltenham Gold Cup entries: Last Instalment was one of the leading lights in the staying novice chase ranks around two years ago before being sidelined by injury. Trainer Philip Fenton said: "It's a bit too early to talk about Cheltenham for Last Instalment, but he will have his first run back in the Kinloch Brae Chase at Thurles (January 16). "He has been pleasing in his work so far and everything has gone very satisfactorily with him, but I'm sure he will improve for his first run as we haven't pushed him at home. "He seems versatile in regards to trip and ground, so we will get his first couple of runs out of the way and see how he progresses. We have got him in the Ryanair as well just to keep all bases covered." I remember well his novice chase victories - he is a horse who travels supremely well and jumps for fun. It will be very interesting to see what he can do next week and for me he is one of the dark horses for the Cheltenham Gold Cup. 50/1 is freely available and that looks worth a couple of quid e/w ante post.
Stop it! I'm trying not to repeat last years antepost Cheltenham book. I got lucky on the Friday which pretty much got me back even, but it was almost a disaster!
I'd be a little worried, having not been pressed at home, that he might well have a couple of easy runs before Cheltenham and be fine but at Cheltenham, where he would be stretched to the limit, he might not be up to it and break down. I don't know what his injury was but it sounds as though it must have been serious. That would be my main worry so fingers crossed for him.
Good to hear he is back on the comeback trail, he was a very exciting novice a couple of years ago. Again i'm not too sure of what the injury was either. However, it seems to be the same story with lengthy injuries everytime, your never gonna quite know to what level they will return to. Look at Invictus for example, beat Bob's Worth before getting injured and was being billed as the "NEXT BIG THING". I just hope he returns at full health and reaches his potential, as you can never have too many good horses around, just makes for more exciting racing. In addition, it would be good if Philip Fenton could at last managed to have a top level superstar for a sustained period of time after the demise of Dunguib
Cracking novice but they don't usually come back the same after tendons. Hope I'm wrong, was a lovely jumping specimen should memory serve.
The best Irish jumper bar Flemenstar- seriously impressive. As with Invictus though, you can only hope he stays sound. Unfortunately it is very difficult.
A thoroughly pleasing comeback against much fitter rivals. Last Instalment travelled with plenty of zest, jumped accurately with a couple of real beauties and was still well in contention coming to the last, after which he probably got a little tired. If he comes out of the race well, Fenton will aim him at the Irish Hennessy over 3 miles and if that goes well then it's the Cheltenham Gold Cup, for which he has been trimmed from 50s to 33s. Really great to see him back.
Hosed up in the Hennessy today and is now a major player for the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Connections saying they would fear fastish ground at the festival but as a novice he won the Grade 1 Fort Leney by 6 lengths from First Lieutenant on officially good ground and it would be a miracle if we had no "soft" in the going description on Gold Cup day. Really fabulous to see him back.
It is good to see him back. I understand one tendon went and was repaired only for the other to go. I have known this happen in the show jumping world (twice). Assuming he had stem cell treatment then, having both sorted, he should be OK. Fingers crossed.
