Solness on his way to another big prize

Solness won the Ladbrokes Dublin Chase at Leopardstown | report and replay

By Sporting Life

Horse Racing

Mon February 03, 2025 · 1M ago

Solness (6/1) won an extraordinary renewal of the Ladbrokes Dublin Chase at Leopardstown under a fine ride from Danny Mullins.

Mullins gave Solness an aggressive ride, sticking to the outside running rail throughout.

Initially Quilixios looked to go with him, albeit scraping the paint on the inside, but Rachael Blackmore soon eased her mount back to sit a couple of lengths in front of the remainder.

They didn't include last year's winner El Fabiolo who was an early faller and his stablemate Gaelic Warrior ran a peculiar race, dropping back through the field looking as though he might be pulled-up before making up some ground in the final half a mile.

Ahead of them all Solness was still in front by some margin but Marine Nationale had moved into second after the second last with Quilixios under pressure. Marine Nationale continued to make inroads and was on terms approaching the final fence but Mullins had saved some petrol for the run-in and Solness pulled away again to win by two lengths.

Twelve lengths back in third was 6/4 favourite Gaelic Warrior in a race that will take a little unravelling.

Solness, trained by Joseph O'Brien, is in the form of his career having beaten Gaelic Warrior in a course Grade One over Christmas. The talented favourite has won only one of his four starts at Leopardstown with that success coming in a handicap hurdle off a rating of 143.

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There was silence behind me

"Unbelievable, great performance," said Mullins.

"What he did from the back of the last to the line that took a bit of doing, I needed a good proper horse underneath me to keep picking up when Marine Nationale was closing down on him.

"I knew up by the winning post that we were going hard but even downhill away from the stands he attacked and jumped great at those two fences. Usually you can hear one flicking a fence behind you but there was silence behind me and I wasn't too worried.

"It was Plan A for myself and Joseph, what we'd talked about, we got little breathers in here and there and some good jumps late on put the seal on it."

He's beaten the best of the Irish

JJ Slevin was on board the last day and Mullins felt Solness had progressed since he was last on board, saying: "He's improving all the time. The Navan run behind Found A Fifty, that was the first time I thought he could play at the top table. He went to Sandown, ground was against him that day and we probably learned plenty about him and JJ executed it so well at Christmas.

"Thankfully JJ is so good he got a new job and I had to be supersub again so delighted to get the leg-up.

"When you're a young fellow watching tv, watching racing the two mile chasers....when I was young Barry Geraghty was riding Moscow Flyer and I thought 'wow, that's the pinnacle of it, speed and big fences'. There was speed and fences today and it was some thrill to just go through it."

On his Cheltenham Festival chances, he added: "He has the potential to do it. Wouldn't like to see it being heavy ground come Cheltenham, last year probably wouldn't suit but if the ground comes up reasonable, that Old Course at Cheltenham fences come at you very fast and he's getting better at jumping and galloping so that comes into his favour.

"He's beaten the best of the Irish and he's going to have to go and take on the likes of Jonbon now but he deserves his crack to go again."

O'Brien would not guarantee that Mullins would keep the ride, saying: “It will all depend on availability. If JJ is available he’ll ride him, if Danny is available he’ll ride him and if neither of them is available, somebody else will ride him!

“Aggressive tactics (worked), he jumped brilliantly and I thought what he did from the last to the line showed real tenacity because he was there to be shot at the whole way. He has a will to win, Danny got a breather into him between the third-last and the second-last and that was probably the winning of the race in the end.

“I could see him running big race in the Champion Chase. He’ll jump and go and they’ll have to come and get to him to beat him. That’s the way he likes to run.

“He has surprised us. We went to Listowel and he won a big handicap chase with a lot of wight and we thought that was a good pot to pick up with him. Then we ended up in graded races and he’s just kept going forward.”

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