Cheltenham Festival: Facile Vega looks big Arkle player

Willie Mullins’ charge warmed to his task at Navan, running out a three-and-three-quarter-length winner over Inthepocket, a Grade One winner himself as a novice hurdler at Aintree in the spring.

Facile Vega is now a general 3/1 chance for the March showpiece behind Marine Nationale (5/2) who beat him in the Sky Bet Supreme at Cheltenham last season.

Graham Cunningham said of the performance on Saturday: “I think Facile Vega beat a good horse. Inthepocket is that, we know it from his Grade One-winning novice hurdle campaign. He beat him decisively in a race where quite a few horses were considerately handled.

“His early jumping was a little careless, but I thought it got better as the race went on and while the split times and overall time were nothing flash, the visual was he was really powering late in the race.

"That real physique and that power that marked him out over hurdles was all there. I’m still highly optimistic that he’s a very, very strong Arkle contender. He’ll go up to graded races and there won’t be many better than Inthepocket waiting to take him on.

"He’s the right favourite for the Arkle right now. Yes, Marine Nationale was tremendous in the Supreme but he’s by French Navy and I haven’t seen too many horses by him who’ve shot the lights out over fences yet, whereas Facile Vega is bred to be a chaser all day long."

Marine Nationale could make his chasing debut at Leopardstown over Christmas with connections keen to avoid deep going and Billy Nash added: “He started over hurdles in October last year and they clearly don’t want to run him in bad ground which is what you’d have to do this time of the year.

“I haven’t heard the updated plan so don’t know when they’re thinking of bringing him out, ideally you’d want him started around about now as you need to get experience into these horses. Leave it until December and you’re going to get two, maximum three, runs before Cheltenham and even that’s a bit of a rush."

Of Facile Vega, Nash added: “I was quite happy with his jumping. He was a little bit careful rather than careless early on but as the race warmed up so did his jumping and he was very good down the home straight when he had to be.

“I was pleased with the way he ran away form them after the last, that was good to see, and he settled better than he sometimes did over fences. Maybe, as they say, he has more respect for a fence than a hurdle and he’s the type of horse you could see making a better chaser than a hurdler and if that’s the case he’s going to take very high rank in the novice chasing department."

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