Irish Pointers winner Love Sign D'Aunou scores by 24 lengths

The frustrating run of seconds for the Top 40 in One Jump Ahead continued at Naas on Sunday. Thankfully, the other featured horses at the meeting came to the fore including Love Sign D'Aunou who propelled himself to the forefront of the antepost market for the Cheltenham Festival bumper. Featured in the Irish Pointers section, the five year old won the same point-to-point at Loughanmore over Easter last year as stablemate and Festival bumper winner Jasmin De Vaux. Bought privately, the Goliath Du Berlais gelding couldn't have been more impressive on his first run for Rich and Susannah Ricci and Willie Mullins making all and pulling clear late on to score by 24 lengths. As short as 5/1 for the Festival bumper, he looks a high-class prospect. Fair play to Joe Chambers, racing manager for the Ricci Family, who nominated the former Gerald Quinn trained youngster as his horse to follow on page 54 of OJA.

Earlier on the card, stablemate Kai Lung (6/1) provided the French Revolution section in OJA with another winner on his Irish debut in the four year old hurdle. Purchased for €80,000 at the Arqana Summer Sale in July, the Galiway gelding won over seven and a half furlongs on the Flat in his native country and never raced beyond ten furlong. Keen in front, he made all the running and did well to find more after the last to score by a couple of lengths. Another stable companion, Mon Creuset, who is highlighted in the Christmas Special, looked set to lay down a strong challenge when making a mistake and sprawling on landing at the penultimate flight. All the rage in the market, the Gigginstown House Stud owned runner is likely to be tough to beat next time.