There were eight Grade 1 races at the Dublin Racing Festival at the weekend, the Irish Gold Cup winner was trained by Gordon Elliott, the Irish Champion Hurdle winner was trained by Henry de Bromhead, and the other six Grade 1 winners were trained by Willie Mullins.
As well as that, of the 24 first-three places collectively available in the eight Grade 1 races, 11 of them were filled by Willie Mullins, seven were filled by Gordon Elliott, and three were filled by Henry de Bromhead, with the other three going to Pat Fahy (Dunvegan), Lorna Fowler (Colonel Mustard) and Paddy Corkery (Master McShee) respectively.
And all those favourites on Sunday.
The Dublin Racing Festival is the objective for many, the destination, not a stop-off on the road to the Cheltenham Festival or somewhere else. The nature of racing is that the ‘what next?’ question is ever present. Even in the winner’s enclosure at Cheltenham. What’s the plan now? It doesn’t mean that the race you’ve just won wasn’t the goal. Four of the eight horses who ran in the Irish Gold Cup didn’t even hold an entry in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Conflated did though, and in the Ryanair Chase and in the Grand National, and he put up a career-best performance by some way in winning the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup on Saturday (replay below).
He was the lowest-rated horse in the field going into the race, and his trainer had to convince his owner to allow him take his chance, not to run in the handicap chase on Sunday instead.
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You can’t say that it was a fluke either. The sedate early pace was probably a positive for Gordon Elliott’s horse, who had won a two-and-a-half-mile handicap chase at Navan on his last run before Saturday, and he was the beneficiary of a masterclass ride from Davy Russell, but it is difficult to argue that he was not the winner on merit.
He won by over six lengths from Minella Indo and Janidil, and he was faster from the third last fence to the winning line than they were in both the novices’ chase and in the handicap chase, and he had run for almost a mile further than those horses before he got to the third last fence.
The Gigginstown House horse has to enter the Gold Cup picture now. He is still only eight and he is relatively lightly raced, and he is unexposed at staying trips.
Minella Indo is very firmly back in the Gold Cup picture too. Not that he was ever really out of it, except maybe for a week or two after his abject display in the King George, before general opinion started to morph from ‘he’s gone, the Gold Cup took too much out of him’ to ‘everything was against him in the King George, and he’s probably a spring horse anyway, a Cheltenham horse.'
That said, Henry de Bromhead’s horse had to run well in the Irish Gold Cup if he was to consolidate that notion, and he did. He got a little outpaced when they quickened on the run to the second last fence but, while it never really looked like he would catch Conflated, he stayed on well from there to take second place. He will probably come on from this run, and he should like being back at Cheltenham in March. He is the one that they all have to beat again.
Honeysuckle is obviously the one that they all have to beat in the Champion Hurdle again too. She was brilliant once again on Sunday. She and Rachael Blackmore together are box office. That’s 14 out of 14 now, Bula’s record in the bag, another Champion Hurdle in her sights.
There were other already-lofty-reputation-enhancing performances, like Galopin Des Champs’ performance in the Ladbrokes Novice Chase. Paul Townend said during the preamble that he was a glass-half-empty man, that he would want to see Galopin Des Champs put up another performance like the one that he put up at Christmas, and he did, at first hand again, from the horse’s back again.
The Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase is the obvious Cheltenham Festival target for Willie Mullins’ horse, like Monkfish last year, like Cooldine in 2009, like Florida Pearl in 1998. But the champion trainer did raise the possibility of going instead for the Turners Novices' Chase at Cheltenham over the shorter trip, and that would be fascinating. All things being equal, that would set up a clash with Bob Olinger. More box office.
Chacun Pour Soi was very good in winning the Ladbrokes Dublin Chase again, consigning his performance in the Tinge Creek Chase to the annals, and Blue Lord was gutsy in getting the better of Riviere D’Etel in the Irish Arkle, although if the mare had jumped the final fence a little better than she did, the result might have been different, and Quevega’s son Facile Vega lived up to his name in the Goffs Future Stars Bumper – the Facile part as well as the Vega part – in a race that also generally lives up to its name, with the previous three renewals going to Envoi Allen, Kilcruit and Appreciate It.
There were many performances in defeat that were worth noting too with an eye on what’s next.
Danny Mullins was very good again from the front on Minella Cocooner in the opening Grade 1 novices’ hurdle, but Minella Crooner did well to stay on as well as he did from an unpromising position to take second place behind him, a mistake at the second last flight just as the pace was increasing accentuating the difficulty of the task that faced him. Winner of a three-mile maiden hurdle at Punchestown last month, he deserves his lofty position in the ante post market for the Albert Bartlett Hurdle.
Minx Tiara did well to last as long as she did in front in the Paddy Mullins Mares’ Handicap Hurdle, after seeing off the attentions of fellow front-runner Brides Hill. Known best as a two-and-a-half-mile mare, this was the shortest trip over which David O’Brien’s mare had ever raced, and there could be more to come from her now, ideally in a race in which she won’t face the same intensity of competition for the early lead. While she has had plenty of racing, she is only seven, and she is obviously in fine form.
Autumn Evening ran a big race at a big price in the Liffey Handicap Hurdle. Jessica Harrington’s horse was never too far off the pace, and he travelled like the most likely winner at the top of the home straight. He was ultimately run down by the closers on the run-in, but it was a really good performance by the Tamayuz gelding in a race that was run at a strong pace. The other four horses who, with him, filled the first five places all came from further back.
Blackbow only finished fifth in the Bulmers Secret Orchard Leopardstown Handicap Chase, but he ran much better than that. He moved to the front at the fifth fence, and he travelled and jumped really well in front. He led into the home straight, but his stamina appeared to ebb from there at the end of two miles and five and a half furlongs, and he tired on the run-in.
He will be interesting again back down in trip and ridden forward like this, and the form of his run in the Dan & Joan Moore Memorial Chase received a nice boost when Dunvegan finished second to Chacun Pour Soi in the Dublin Chase, Pat Fahy’s horse proving that he could operate away from Fairyhouse as well.
And Liberty Dance ran a big race in the concluding Coolmore Mares’ bumper. Lisa O’Neill had to check her mare and switch her off the rail inside the final furlong, as the favourite Pink In The Park drifted towards the inside in front of her, but for which she might have won. She finished off her race strongly, going down by just a nose and a short head in the end.
She could be a mare for the Grade 2 mares’ bumper at Aintree’s Grand National meeting or the Grade 3 mares’ bumper at the Punchestown Festival. One of those could be next.
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