Cheltenham Festival update: Spotlight on Punchestown winner Tullyhill

At the end of a week which saw Willie Mullins parade the likes of Ballyburn, Mystical Power, Ile Atlantique, Readin Tommy Wrong, High Class Hero and Dancing City in front of the assembled press at his annual pre-Cheltenham media day in Closutton, it seemed almost inconceivable that Ireland's champion trainer could pull yet another top-class novice out of his hat on Sunday's Punchestown card.

And yet when Paul Townend positioned the strapping grey Tullyhill at the head of the pack as the eight horses casually circled prior to the start of the Listed Madigan Group Irish EBF Sheila Bourke Novice Hurdle, there was an air of inevitability about what was to come.

The market had spoken too, Tullyhill fleetingly priced up at 5/2 and 9/4 on Saturday evening but ultimately sent off the 6/5 favourite following sustained support compared to main rival No Flies On Him, who took something of a walk in the betting.

Tullyhill has always been headstrong, even when splitting A Dream To Share and King Of Kingsfield in the Grade 1 Champion I.N.H. Flat Race at the spring Festival on this track last April he'd underlined a tendency to over-race in the early stages, and that was ultimately his undoing when beaten at odds of 1/8 on his hurdling debut in a maiden hurdle (also at Punchestown) on November 26.

That came during a period when all of Mullins' best novices appeared to be a little behind schedule, the aforementioned Ballyburn beaten at odds-on at Fairyhouse in early-December and - like that stablemate - Tullyhill swiftly set the record straight with an easy win in a Naas maiden in the New Year.

He was neat on the front end that day too but Sunday's jumping performance was even sharper, the son of Martaline measuring his hurdles beautifully and giving out the distinct signs of a horse now very much getting to grips with the game.

He didn't make his debut under Rules until March of last year but has always been spoken of among the upper echelons by those closest to the stable, and beating the similarly well-regarded No Flies On Him by nine lengths, seven-length Moscow Flyer runner-up Jigoro back in third, without coming under maximum pressure, looks a piece of form to take very seriously.

What do the antepost markets say?

Here's where it gets a bit tasty. Tullyhill's sole Cheltenham Festival entry is in the Sky Bet Supreme, a race for which the sponsors had him as a largely unconsidered 18/1 chance, no doubt on the back of not getting much of a mention in the countless stable tours published across various platforms earlier this week.

That (NRNB) price now reads 6/1, with Paddy Power as low at 5/1 and just bet365, who offer the same money-back concession, going 8/1 for the Festival opener. The two horses shorter than Tullyhill in the same market, namely Ballyburn (evens) and Mystical Power (11/2), are both trained by the same man but run in the colours of different owners.

In the 2m5f Baring Bingham Novices' Hurdle, Ballyburn was on Sunday cut to 9/4 from 4/1 by Unibet and 5/2 from 7/2 by Coral and Ladbrokes. Sky Bet are a best-priced 2/1 among the firms offering NRNB on the Baring Bingham, with others as short at 11/10.

What's the current conclusion?

Not for the first time in this series, I'll refer to my assessment of Mystical Power after his victory in the Moscow Flyer, by which I was underwhelmed, while there was a temptation to pour a little cold water over the slightly hysterical reaction to Ballyburn winning over two miles at the DRF, where the soft ground and omission of the final flight turned his race into significantly more of a test than might have been the case.

Like Ballyburn, Tullyhill was considered more of a stamina prospect at the start of the season, Mullins stating those exact words on these pages back in October, but has now found his niche back over two miles and still goes with plenty of enthusiasm which might put connections off the idea of going further than the minimum trip at any stage soon. In that regard, there are shades of Champagne Fever about the Cheveley Park horse at this point.

I was of the view that Ballyburn would most likely end up as Mullins' ace in the Baring Bingham anyway, so nothing we saw on Sunday has altered that view, and if I had to have a match bet between Mystical Power and Tullyhill in a Sky Bet Supreme then I'd have the grey over the bay, without question.

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