The Albert Bartlett is rarely a race for pretty horses or pretty opinions. It is a staying novice hurdle that usually turns into a proper test of stamina, nerve and resolution, and this year looks no different.
The pace angle is the first thing that jumps off the page. HRB’s shape data points to a fierce gallop, with plenty of forward-going types in the field and a high risk of the race falling apart late on. Timeform says much the same, flagging an extreme pace forecast and making the point that patiently ridden horses are usually favoured in this contest. That matters.
On bare form, Doctor Steinberg is the obvious one. He is unbeaten over hurdles, comes here off a Grade 1 win at Leopardstown and has the strongest recent piece of form in the field. Willie Mullins and Paul Townend bring the sort of profile you would expect to be at the head of the market in this race. If he settles and sees out the trip strongly, he may simply prove too good.
The problem is that this does not look like an ideal setup for him. He has been doing his best work on or near the pace, and in a race packed with other runners who also like to get involved early, there is a real danger he does too much too soon. Timeform have already raised the question of whether he will contain his exuberance over three miles. In an Albert Bartlett, that is not a throwaway line.
That is why Kazansky makes more appeal.
He was beaten eight lengths by Doctor Steinberg at Leopardstown, so there is no pretending he has the better recent form. But this race is a different examination. He shapes like a thorough stayer, he has already won a Grade 2 over nearly three miles, and his run style suggests he will be far better suited by a strongly-run war of attrition than some of the horses ahead of him in the market. Timeform’s view that he is tailor-made for the demands of this race looks spot on.
He also fits the usual Albert Bartlett mould. Irish-trained, lightly raced, still improving, and likely to be doing his best work from the top of the hill to the line. That has been the profile of plenty of recent winners. This is not always a race won by the flashiest novice. More often it goes to the one who keeps finding when the rest have had enough.
Thedeviluno looks the main danger. He won the River Don well, is proven at the trip and should be helped by the expected pace collapse. He is uncomplicated and stays, which is never a bad place to start in this race.
Of the bigger prices, Moneygarrow has each-way appeal. He has already won over three miles and looks the sort to keep going when others fold. Spinningayarn is another unexposed one with the potential to improve for this stiffer stamina test.
Still, the race keeps coming back to one question: do you want the class horse, or the horse built for the contest?
For me, it is Kazansky. He may not have the sexiest profile on the page, but he looks made for the shape, the trip and the late demands of the Albert Bartlett.
Verdict
KAZANSKY to outstay them and win the Albert Bartlett.
Bombproof?
Medium. He makes plenty of sense, but this is the Albert Bartlett, a race that has made mugs of stronger cases than this.