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Brilliant Ballyburn leads home famous five

Ballyburn led home a one-two-three-four-five for Willie Mullins in the Gallagher Novices' Hurdle.

In truth the 1/2 favourite outclassed his stablemates and the two British raiders, cantering in behind the trailblazing Mercurey before sauntering to the front approaching the final flight.

After a safe leap there it was merely a case of what would the winning distance be? The answer was 13 lengths from Jimmy Du Seuil (66/1) with Ile Atlantique (9/2), Mercurey (40/1) and Predators Gold (7/1) completing the clean-sweep.

Nicky Henderson's disappointing week continued with Jingko Bleu pulling up.

“It’s the first time he’s wowed me, I thought ‘wow, what a performance’ and to me that was a Champion Hurdle performance,” said Mullins. “It was really really spectacular. With his size, scope and pedigree our owners might decide to go chasing with him next year, I don’t know. But with that performance he can go anywhere.

“Our team are in flying form, but we are just so sorry for Nicky Henderson that he has had to pull his good horses out. It could be us, so our sympathies go to him.”

He went on: “My heart hasn’t skipped a beat when a horse jumps a hurdle since Annie Power, but it skipped a beat there! I thought he was a good horse, but I didn’t view him as the horse that people were saying until today. When he jumped the last and went away up the hill I just thought ‘wow’.

“This fellow could be anything, he could be a Champion Hurdle horse, a Gold Cup horse or both with his size, scope and pedigree. He’s made for fences but looks to have the ability for a Champion Hurdle. I didn’t realise we’d had the first five, Michael Dickinson obviously did it in the Gold Cup but it’s nice to do it in a Grade One at Cheltenham.

“I hadn’t even got my licence then, but it was extraordinary to look at a man having so much firepower in one stable and now it looks like we’re in the same position at the moment. It’s nice to do that at the Festival. I know how good our others are, they would be top-class horses any other year and they deserve to be here, the strength behind him – he blew me away. When we saw Slade Steel win yesterday that really franked the form and gave us an even better chance.”

Townend said to ITV Racing: “That was a fair feeling. It wasn’t a big field obviously, and we had five of them, but I respect a lot of the horses behind him and he has blown them out the water. It was a bigger performance than I thought he was going to put in to be honest. But riding them you always make doubts I suppose. Keep it simple. His bark is a lot worse than his bite, in that, I suppose, if you did get in a row with him, there’s only going to be one winner. But you can let him just put his head down and play with him away and he’s definitely not as strong as he visually looks. He was very good, jumped brilliantly. He is wow.”

The jockey went on to say: “He was brilliant. Brilliant. It was a huge performance, because I know all the horses behind him and I thought it was a talented field. It was a big, big performance. If he wasn’t like that (looking fairly keen) you’d be more worried. But his bark is probably worse than his bite because to ride him he doesn’t pull like a train - you just have to play with him and mess away with him, and he’s actually simple enough then.

“Whatever speed you are going he does that. He does that at home too, and he gave me a nice headbutt at the start because he throws his head around a bit, but that’s just him. If you got in a row with him you’d probably upset him so you just have to play with him. He’s looking at the jumps, and you just have to trust him.

“My worry coming going back up in trip after racing over two miles the last time was that he might want to run like a two-miler, but no. His jumping was savage, and his galloping wasn’t bad either!

“I was doing a half-speed everywhere to be honest. The ground is hard work, I just let put half an inch of rein going to the last and then getting over it was the main thing.

“He could be anything, and I think he’d take a fair bit of whacking at two miles too. He’s just a very, very talented horse, and he fairly blew away the Supreme winner at Leopardstown, so the form was stacking up. It was a doddle of a performance.”

Winning owner Ronnie Bartlett added: “He jumped well, we didn’t know how he was going to handle the ground, but that was exciting. Let’s enjoy the day and the future is in front of him, so we’ll just keep our fingers crossed. He had lots of different options and in typical Willie style he didn’t want to tell us too much, but listen it all came right in the end.”

File oozes class in Brown Advisory

Mullins completed a Grade One double and Mark Walsh rode his first winner of the week as Fact To File ran out a classy winner of the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase.

The 8/13 favourite was given a patient ride as he stepped up to three miles for the first time, jumping slickly throughout and being brought through between eventual runner-up Monty's Star (13/2) and Sandor Clegane to go to the front turning in.

Foot perfect at the two fences down the home straight, he went clear on the climb to the line to score by three-and-three-quarter lengths. Betfair and Paddy Power halved him in price for next season's Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup. Sky Bet are 5/1.

Winning owner JP McManus said: “I was nervous and I thought he got a little warm and on his toes beforehand. I think Mark did a great job to get him settled and I think he will learn a lot from that race, I’m just relieved. It’s all in front of him and when Willie decided to go straight chasing with him I had no objection, it sounded good to me. It has been vindicated.”

Mullins, who was taking his Cheltenham Festival career tally to a remarkable 99 winners, said: “That was very impressive, it was a Gold Cup performance potentially, but he’s been like that since the day he came into the yard. I thought he’d win the Champion Bumper last year, then of course JP came and beat us with A Dream To Share, but that’s how good I thought he was.

“The fact that he was a ready-made steeplechaser from the first day he came into the yard is why I skipped hurdling with him and I’m very happy we did that now. I think JP had a nice little wager for the staff earlier in the season on this fellow for this race, so he more or less made the decision.

“He’s a beauty of a jumper and he gave Mark a tremendous ride, I’d say it was some thrill riding him round there. He’s just a real gentleman of a horse, that’s what he is. I’ve seen the potential. He’s like a child’s pony in the stable, he’s got the temperament for it.

“You know the plan (for next season), he could start off in the John Durkan, then run at Christmas, then the Dublin Racing Festival and back here. That’s the bones of the plan, but he has to stay right and JP might have other ideas, so I’ll have to have a chat with him about that.”

Henry De Bromhead said of Monty’s Star: “We’re delighted, it was a really good performance. Obviously we wanted to win but the winner looks really good and has all year. I think we lost little in defeat. He’s improving all the time, he’s a really exciting horse for us. We’ll target the Gold Cup and work our way back from there and hope for better weather.

“He’s a big, raw horse, only seven and Rachael just thought on a bit better ground it would have helped his jumping, but he ran his heart out. The winner is really good, but we’re delighted with our horse.”

Lucinda Russell said of third home Giovinco: “I’m really pleased, he ran ever so well. There was a moment just coming down the hill I did begin to get excited, but he travelled beautifully and jumped really well. He’s a fantastic horse and I’m really pleased.”

His rider Stephen Mulqueen was equally thrilled with the run, saying: “It was massive and I’m in a fortunate place. Scu (Peter Scudamore, assistant trainer) told me to drop him out because he’s been a bit keen, and going to two out I was getting excited. Lucinda put the red hood on him as he’d had the odd excuse and it definitely helped.”

Skeltons enjoy handicap double

Dan and Harry Skelton enjoyed a Cheltenham Festival double courtesy of Langer Dan and Unexpected Party.

The former horse retained his title for the brothers in the Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle, a race he won last year off the same mark – this timing starting as a 13/2 chance to return the trophy to owner Colm Donlon’s mantelpiece.

After moving sweetly in the mid-division Langer Dan inched his way into the race as it developed before powering into the lead up the hill, pulling away to win comfortably on the line, by three and a half lengths from Ballyadam.

The winning trainer said: “He’s a remarkable little horse. He had surgery after winning this last year, which made him miss Aintree.

“Colm has had a torrid time with his two big guns ruled out, but this horse just knows how to do it on the big day.

“I’m very proud of the whole team, he’s bled on occasions this year and he had ulcers which we’ve treated – he’s just remarkable.

“Just in the last few weeks he’s started to come alive. The plan on Saturday was to work him with the slowest horse we had and to make sure he won and he won by a head.

“I just thought a head was better than nothing as he hadn’t been winning a raffle recently – he’s remarkable.”

He added: “Winners here mean so much. While we do the job 365 days a year, these four mean more than any other so you have to bring the right horse.”

Unexpected Party, tipped in Matt Brocklebank's Value Bet column at 16/1, then made the afternoon better still for the Skeltons when winning the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Challenge Cup Handicap Chase at an SP of 12/1.

The grey was always jumping well towards the head of affairs and stayed best of all to climb the hill in the lead with Evan Williams’ Libberty Hunter (6/1) behind him in second and Path D'oroux (10/1) back in third. Sa Fureur was fourth as 4/1 favourite, with front-runner Gemirande (40/1) fifth and Saint Roi (13/2) sixth.

Skelton said: “They are a brilliant group of owners, they’ve been with me a long time. After two winners we’re going to go and have an expected party now!

“It’s been a remarkable day, I’m just very proud of the horses, they are running out of their skins. It’s remarkable that the horses are in such great form, Harry gave him a fantastic ride.

“He was a bit further forward than he needed to be but he found two big jumps and my only concern turning in was that he was there to be aimed at.

“He was never going to stop over two miles and I don’t think he’s been quite getting home over further.

“I’m in a very lucky position, I’m the head of the team but I’m not the team itself. This has been a really satisfying day for all of us."

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