Ryan Mania and Midnight Shadow need career best to win at Doncaster

He believes victory will require a career-best performance from Sue and Harvey Smith’s stable star who has gone up in the ratings after winning Cheltenham’s Paddy Power Gold Cup last November.

But he is also confident that the strapping horse, owned by Cyril and Aafke Clarke, has never felt better following a lay-off after the chaser was a gallant third back at Cheltenham in mid-December.

“I schooled him the other day and he took off with me,” the 2013 Grand National-winning jockey told The Yorkshire Post. “I was out of control.

“Genuinely, when I schooled him, he felt in the best form that I’ve never known him to be in. He’s in cracking form and it’s probably done him good to have some time off from his last run.

“He goes there (Doncaster) nice and a fresh – and Sue and Harvey know how to get horses fit for races like this.”

Midnight Shadow’s consistency in competitive handicaps means he shares top weight of 11st 12lb with the equally admirable Nuts Well for Ian and Ann Hamilton, the Northumberland farmers whose success with their small string has been one of the stories of the 2021-22 season.

Yet it means they are conceding weight to progressive horses as good as Nicky Henderson’s Fusil Raffles, the winner of Wetherby’s Charlie Hall Chase, and over two stone to the Christian Williams-trained Cap Du Nord when talented young rider Jack Tudor’s weight allowance is also taken into account.

And then there’s the unknown – how will Midnight Shadow handle the step up in trip to three miles for the first time in a race invariably run at a strong gallop from the off?

“To win, it has to be near on a career best performance to carry top weight,” ventured the jockey after connections opted not to enter today’s less competitive Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham.

“There are some nice horses that he’s giving weight to and the big question will be if he stays the trip? I have no doubt myself but he’s got to go out and prove it. He could stay the trip fine and still get beaten, but he’s also giving a lot of weight away because he’s a good horse.”

This view is shared by Sue Smith who also reports Midnight Shadow to be “in good form” and that she could not have asked for more from the steeplechaser this season.

She also says the run will determine whether ‘Shadow’ stays at three miles or steps back to two- and-a-half miles – the horse holds initial entries in next month’s Grade One Ascot Chase and the Ryanair Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.

But Smith and Mania also know that it will take a special performance to beat the thrill that they enjoyed when Midnight Shadow won the Paddy Power after knuckling over on landing at the final fence before prevailing in a heartstopping finish.

And, for Mania, it made up for the absence of crowds when he partnered the veteran Vintage Clouds, also trained by the Smiths, to victory at last season’s Cheltenham Festival in lockdown. “To get a chance to experience such a reception like that – it wasn’t the Festival but it was still Cheltenham – the buzz of the place was unbelievable,” he said.

It also energised him when a heavy fall at Newcastle last week left him with fractured ribs – and fearing the worst for his ankle and elbow.

However, x-rays showed the damage to be restricted to soft tissue and he was pleased to be back in action at Wetherby on Thursday ahead of today’s Town Moor card where he says Coolbane Boy deserves his place in the Grade Two River Don Novices’ Hurdle and that his Bumper horse Prairie Wolf is “one for the future”.

“It was good to get back and blow the cobwebs away,” he added. “It takes a couple of rides to feel a bit more normal.”