De Vous A Moi returns with a win

SUE Smith has another potential staying steeplechaser after De Vous A Moi '“ off the track since a battling win at Wetherby last November '“ made a winning comeback at Newcastle.

The eight-year-old, owned by Neil and Julie Morgan of Kalahari King fame, has won four times, and been runner-up twice in his last six starts and responded well to the urgings of Thirsk-based Danny Cook, who was taking his career-best tally of triumphs to 39 for the current campaign.

Though James Reveley tried to make all on his father, Keith’s, Special Catch and built up a handy lead, De Vous A Moi – known as ‘Dave’ at Smith’s High Eldwick stables – began to reel in the pacesetter and took up the running in the home straight before prevailing by five lengths in this two-and-a-half mile test.

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“He’s done nothing wrong. He’s had a bit of a break. He had a tiny little injury,” said Smith, who recently recorded her 1,000th winner and who specialises in such races.

“He was second at Ayr, then he won at Wetherby, then he had a break and has come back here (yesterday). He’s a very genuine horse and a terrific jumper.

“He had a fair bit of experience over fences in France before he came over to England, but then he’s just gone from strength to strength.

“I’d like to see him on a little better ground and possibly up to three miles.”

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Meanwhile, Smith’s Cloudy Too, a big race winner at Haydock in January, is among the new entries for Kelso’s rearranged Premier Chase this Sunday where Grand National hero Many Clouds is due to have his final prep run before defending his Aintree title.

There was some consolation at Newcastle for the Saltburn-based Reveley family when they teamed up in the finale with Bestiarius while Middleham jockey Joe Colliver’s fine run continued with Generous Pet’s win in the opener for trainer Kenneth Slack – the Sheffield-born rider is due to partner Just Cameron in Cheltenham’s Queen Mother Champion Chase.

Mick Kinane expects Joseph O’Brien to make a seamless transition from top jockey to successful trainer. Kinane was one of Ireland’s best Flat jockeys, winning the title 13 times in a 34-year career that ended in 2009.

O’Brien, whose many notable victories in Yorkshire included the 2013 Ladbrokes St Leger at Doncaster on Leading Light, was also number one at Ballydoyle and Kinane believes the 22-year-old did “remarkably well” in a difficult job.

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“For one so young he achieved an awful lot as a jockey. He can be proud of what he achieved,” said Kinane, whose record tally for winners in an Irish season O’Brien broke in 2013.

“He should get the right support and he’s training from a nice establishment. I’d expect him to be a success.”

Unnaturally tall for a Flat jockey, the pencil-thin jockey has been applying for a trainer’s licence and is currently assisting his father Aidan to run the O’Brien family’s yard at Piltown, County Kilkenny.

This is where three-time Champion Hurdle winner Istabraq was trained before O’Brien senior made the move to Ballydoyle.

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The family are currently overseeing the final preparations for Ivanovich Gorbatov’s tilt at Cheltenham’s JCB Triumph Hurdle next week.

The Grey Gatsby has been earmarked to begin his season at the Curragh in May after Hambleton trainer Kevin Ryan resisted the urge to send him back to Dubai.

Ryan had considered a return to Meydan for the consistent five-year-old after he chased home Solow in the Dubai Turf 12 months ago.

The son of Mastercraftsman will instead be kept under wraps for a few more months, with the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh a possible first objective.

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The Grey Gatsby is then likely to head to Royal Ascot for a repeat bid in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes after he finished a short-head second to Free Eagle last summer.

Ryan said: “If we start later with him, hopefully we’ll be able to keep him going for longer.”

Global healthcare company Randox Health will become the new sponsor of the Grand National at Aintree in 2017, taking over from Crabbie’s.