Cheltenham Festival update: Spotlight on Willie Mullins trained mare Zenta

What’s the latest development?

The O’Flynn Group Irish EBF Mares Novice Chase, a Grade 2 run over a trip of two miles and 160 yards, has produced a number of quality performers in recent seasons.

The pick of the bunch is probably last year’s winner Impervious, subsequently rated 158 by the official handicapper after winning at Punchestown in the New Year and at the Cheltenham and Punchestown Festivals in the spring, but she's not the only one to have gone on to strike gold at Prestbury Park in March having tasted success at Cork in December.

The 2014 winner Vroum Vroum Mag won the Mares’ Hurdle a little deeper into her career, as well as a Grade 1 Christmas Hurdle at Leopardstown for good measure, while the 2017 winner Shattered Love won the Turners (then JLT) Novices’ Chase later in the same season.

Elimay popped up at Cork in 2019 en route to finishing a half-length second in the inaugural running of the Mrs Paddy Power Chase at Cheltenham, before going one better in the same race the following year.

Throw in Mount Ida and Concertista (herself another Cheltenham Festival winner, although that did admittedly come over hurdles prior to her success in this event) as other recent victors and we’re more often than not dealing with an informative race.

So just how good was Sunday’s edition?

It looked solid if unspectacular beforehand and victory going the way of 33/1 outsider Silent Approach can’t really been seen as a ringing endorsement for the overall quality of the contest given she was rated just 109 over hurdles. There was also a strong stench of Danny Mullins seizing a tactical opportunity that others in his boots may well have missed but, not for the first time this season, there was an encouraging effort from one in the JP McManus silks back in third.

Only three four-year-olds had ever run in this race before so it was obviously quite interesting to see Willie Mullins pitch Zenta in at Grade 2 level for her chasing debut, especially as he’d been responsible for the 2007 four-year-old winner Pomme Tiepy, and connections won’t be disheartened by what they saw.

In contrast to the winner, Zenta arrived with a relatively lofty hurdles mark of 138 having got home by the narrowest of margins in the top-class 4-Y-O Juvenile Hurdle at Aintree when last seen in mid-April, although the betting was tight between her and Gordon Elliott's more experienced Harmonya Maker, who ended up going off favourite.

Harmonya Maker tended to jump out to her left from around halfway, which was also the case when winning on chasing debut, but unlike at Gowran where it seemed to be a benefit to end up nearer the stands' side at that meeting, she was clearly not doing herself any favours on this occasion. And Danny Mullins made her pay.

Zenta, meanwhile, looks to have taken to fences quite nicely – if a little careful very early on which is understandable. She also picked up well when asked to quicken between the fourth last and three out, before looking to get tired on the run to the second-last.

It was a considerate enough ride by Mark Walsh from that point but she stayed on to be beaten around six lengths and, much like Corbetts Cross who we featured here a few weeks back, the experience certainly won’t be lost on her.

What are the long-term options?

The primary Cheltenham targets for any winner of this race appear to have been the JLT or the Mares’ Chase, but no five-year-old has run in the race and I doubt Willie Mullins would be looking for Zenta to become the first.

Not many five-year-olds run in the Grand Annual Handicap Chase either but Henry Daly's Palarshan won it aged five in 2003 and Paul Nicholls has run a trio of youngsters in it in recent years including Magic Saint, who went off the 9/2 favourite in 2019.

Il Ridoto was eighth as a five-year-old a couple of years ago and Dolos finished seventh in 2018 so I can't imagine her age will be too off-putting when it comes to this potential long-term assignment, and the same Mullins/McManus combo almost won the Grand Annual with last year’s big gamble Dinoblue, the six-year-old mare finishing second to Maskada as the 7/2 jolly.

Dinoblue had been runner-up to Impervious in this same Cork contest and, having had a run beforehand, she then qualified for Cheltenham by finishing second at Naas in February. Zenta is a little behind that one in terms of experience at this stage of the year, then, but there’s still time to run twice before the spring and thoughts will surely now turn to eventually tackling a valuable handicap or two with this Grade 1 juvenile hurdle winner.

What’s the current conclusion?

Zenta isn’t going to be much of a price wherever she turns up next but she’s definitely one to keep an eye on with a view to getting a chase mark somewhere in the region of her hurdles figure (138).

You’d like to see her get a bit slicker and quicker from one side of a fence to another but we know she copes with better ground based on her wins at Fairyhouse (yielding) and Aintree (good to soft) last season and the track at Cheltenham certainly isn’t a problem for her given the cracking effort in last year's Triumph.

There was a brief moment where she looked to be going best turning in at Cheltenham but couldn’t quite match Lossiemouth, who had the stands’ side rail to help her, and ended up third after another stablemate, Gala Marceau, pipped her on the run-in. Mullins also had the fourth in Gust Of Wind, for those of you with short memories.

In short, Zenta has 'Cheltenham handicap' written all over her and I don't think she's desperate to go much further than two miles at this stage.

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