Ginger Joe - Prospects for the 2024/25 NH Season - #1 Majborough

A new and exciting Ginger Joe series

As we gear up for the 2024/25 National Hunt season, I’m excited to present some of the standout horses who are preparing to compete over Jumps this year. With many to cover, I'll bring you more previews on the quieter racing days.

For each horse, I’ll take a look at their previous form and their trainers aspirations, but I’ll also give you my take, including my thoughts on their potential for the 2025 Cheltenham Festival. Note: these are not my ante post picks, just my personal take on their upcoming campaigns.

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Introducing Majborough

Details: 4 year old (06 Apr 20) bay gelding

Sire: Martinborough (JPN)
Dam: Janimone (FR)

Trained by: Willie Mullins
Owned by: JP McManus

Majborough - a hugely exciting prospect for the season ahead

To kick off this series, I'll be taking a look at the JP McManus-owned Majborough,who is in training with Willie Mullins. Majborough made a strong impression as a juvenile, and shows significant potential for further improvement. Not to mention the fact that he is a big talking horse for the upcoming Jumps season. This one is a bit of a four-year-old anomaly, but also an extremely exciting horse to go forward with this year.

Form to date

Majborough has only had three starts to date, and the first of those was on his debut over in France where he made a big impression. He raced in midfield and just picked off his rivals one by one, only needing to be pushed out to win the race by more than four lengths. It was no surprise to see him snapped up by JP McManus shortly after. From this point there was a lot of speculation about him and talk of his size, scope and potential, but of course, we hadn't seen him in the flesh yet.

As it turned out, the first time we saw Majborough on this side of the Channel was just six weeks before the 2024 Cheltenham Festival, when he lined up in the Grade 1 Spring Juvenile at the Dublin Racing Festival. He was up against all of the best Irish Juveniles here and ran a huge race behind Kargese, despite being thrown straight in at the deep end.

Majborough went straight to the Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival next, and this was a seriously good performance. Compared to his run at the DRF, he travelled much better at Cheltenham, where he reversed the form with Kargese, with the pair of them pulling well clear of the field. It really is quite remarkable that he had improved enough from his debut run to beat race-fit and more experienced rivals that day.

Future plans

I need to make it clear at this point that Majborough doesn't look like your typical Juvenile Hurdler. He is built like a real Chaser, completely unlike the other Triumph winners Mullins has trained, namely Lossiemouth, Vauban and Burning Victory. Those three are highly unlikely to ever go over fences, but Majborough certainly will. How soon it may happen is the big question. Willie Mullins said, and I quote ''He may well go Novice Chasing next season, although I don’t really like doing that with a horse so young, so we’ll see."

It’s easy to understand the dilemma here. A horse is never fully developed until it is at least five years old, so rushing progression at such an early stage is always something to be cautious about. Gordon Elliott’s Fil D’Or is a classic example of how good horses can be ruined by sending them over fences too soon. I don’t believe for a moment that Willie Mullins will rush Majborough though, he takes more time with his horses and does right by them. However, that does mean it’s unclear what his exact plans for Majborough are, and we will have to be patient for a bit longer to find out.

My thoughts about Majborough

It’s a known fact that a fair amount of Jumps-bred horses are still immature at this stage of their lives. However, in recent years, some of the French-bred types seem increasingly precocious and ready to go even when they are still young. But they are simply not as big as Majborough, so he remains a puzzle that only Willie Mullins can ultimately work out.

Having established that Majborough still has some maturing to do, I doubt Mullins will run him again until nearer Christmas, and there isn’t much time from then until Cheltenham. So let’s take a look at some facts and possibilities next.

Majborough’s three starts over Hurdles have all been in Grade 1 races around the 2m mark. From those, he has managed two wins, plus an excellent third-place performance. However, if he continues over Hurdles for another season, it leaves him in no mans land to a degree, as there isn't really a viable campaign route for horses of his age - exactly the same situation we will see with Nicky Henderson’s Sir Gino this season in fact.

Cheltenham Chase options

If he was mine, I would want to keep him over Hurdles, but all facts considered he is far more likely to go Chasing, but where will he end up? The majority of punters seem to think he will go to the Brown Advisory over three miles, but I am not convinced myself. There has only been one five-year-old winner of that race since 1950, and the immaturity of horses that age is the most likely reason. Also, if doesn’t run again until the end of the year, I feel the chance of him going up to three miles and winning a race against older and far more experienced horses is very slim.

There is the Arkle, which is a 2m race, but frankly, I don’t think the route to Arkle would be his game at all. All of this leaves me leaning towards the 2m 4f Turners Novices’ Chase, which is the best option for his age, as well as being the road to the Gold Cup in due course, which is surely the ultimate goal for Majborough one of these days.

It’s impossible to be totally clear about where he will go at this precise moment in time, but I am seriously intrigued to see how he does end up being campaigned this year. One thing is for sure though, Majborough is quite something already and I can barely wait to see him out on the track again.

Majborough betting

I would urge a bit of caution if you are thinking about backing Majborough for a Chase this season. Although it’s quite likely he will go that way, there is always the possibility that he will continue over Hurdles for another season. Not knowing the answer makes it hard to back him, so just be careful before you decide to load up based on his ante post odds for the 2025 Cheltenham Festival, no matter how appealing they might look now.

Current ante post prices for Majborough

These are the current ante post race options and prices for Majborough at the 2025 Cheltenham Festival:

• The Arkle Chase (2m) @ 12/1
• The Turners Novices’ Chase (2m 4f) @ 12/1
• The Brown Advisory Chase (3m) @ 14/1

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