The brilliance of Danny Mullins, a promising juvenile hurdler and a Gordon Elliott-trained novice chaser all come under the spotlight this week.
Thinking outside of the box
Danny Mullins possesses no shortage of the family brainpower and he’s just great to watch in the saddle, if only for the occasionally unpredictable nature of his jockeyship.
Earlier this year Mullins, now 31, spoke on Racing TV about some of the key things he's picked up from uncle Willie over the years, underlining the boss’s desire to constantly change things up and not simply stand still and hope to remain the best in the business – the old Sir Alex mantra at Man United.
And you can see it shining through in the way Mullins rides too, never one to follow the crowd for the sake of it and always seemingly on the lookout for an alternative path which may lead to the fabled marginal gains.
He’d obviously done his homework prior to Saturday’s Coral Gold Cup and I absolutely loved his initial plan to go forward down on the inside rail on the lightly-weighted Stumptown – the vast majority of recent Newbury winners having been in front rank from the outset – but Ahoy Senor was two strides quicker to the first fence, where he inevitably jumped out right, nudging Stolen Silver, who stumbled slightly before himself nudging Stumptown. From that point it was an uphill battle for Mullins, whose mount looked to lose all confidence.
The jockey clearly hadn’t as less than 24 hours later he gave the 22/1 chance Street Value a pearler to win the Porterstown Handicap Chase at Fairyhouse, plotting a clever outside route and jumping the fence before the turn in as wide as he dared before nipping inside a wayward rival and keeping his tired partner up to its work.
Not many would have won on that horse. And it won’t be the last time we say that about Danny Mullins this season.
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Nara arrival won’t be long
Another notable performance away from the Grade 1 glare at Fairyhouse on Sunday came from Nara in the juvenile hurdle.
Mark Walsh had a great time of things over the Winter Festival, booting home four winners for JP McManus, but the filly Nara looked in need of the experience and her jockey duly obliged with some educational assistance after her jumping left plenty to be desired early on.
Having won a Listed race over hurdles at Auteuil back in April, it’s no surprise she was snapped up by one of the powerhouse yards (has joined Henry De Bromhead) and while this form isn’t going to be up to Triumph Hurdle level, another confidence-boosting outing over Christmas and/or at the DRF should ensure Nara gets a reasonable handicap mark going into the spring.
Aces high
On Saturday, it was good to see Corbetts Cross get off the mark at the second time of asking in the beginners chase - I'm still a bit baffled why his antepost prices doubled after the chasing debut run, but that's corrected itself again.
He’s bang on course for a crack at Grade 1 company over fences now he has the two runs under his belt but by the very same token we’ve got to be paying massive respect to Fairyhouse runner-up Three Card Brag, who was making his seasonal return/chase debut and only went down by three-quarters of a length having made most of the running.
Sent off the 7/4 favourite, he’s obviously held in very high regard at Gordon Elliott’s, something that had become pretty obvious during his time over hurdles last winter, and for a horse occasionally referred to as ‘lazy’ to do this against a quality, race-fit rival, over a trip just beyond two and a half first time back, has to go down as highly encouraging.
Elliott has a very good line into Cheltenham's National Hunt Chase – a race he’s won four times in the past – as he has a couple of the early market leaders in Favori De Champdou and Salvador Ziggy, but I wouldn’t be shocked if Three Card Brag relishes that sort of trip and ultimately trumps the lot of them come March.
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