Willie Mullins enjoyed a day to savour in the Ayr sunshine, saddling a sizzling 4462/1 four-timer at Ayr.
It what seemed to be a decisive day in his bid to become the first Irish trainer to win the British trainers' title since Vincent O'Brien in 1954, he landed the feature Coral Scottish Grand National via Macdermott.
The support cast played their part too, stable jockey Paul Townend striking aboard Sharjah (7/1), Chosen Witness (6/1) and Quai De Bourbon (8/11 favourite).
The Closutton powerhouse began the day £4,982 behind Dan Skelton but powered clear at the top of the table through the afternoon and said: “We’ve one hand on it, but there’s £650,000 in prize-money next weekend, so we can’t stop and we have to keep going – we’ll see you at Ffos Las on Monday."
Paddy Power had taken the decision to pay out on a Mullins title triumph before Friday’s card at Ayr and their spokesman Paul Binfield said on Saturday evening: “We thought it was all over yesterday, it probably is now.”
Fortune defies Closutton team
Favour And Fortune bravely fended off a whole host of rivals from title-chasing yards to claim victory in the Coral Scottish Champion Hurdle.
Alan King’s six-year-old swept past the Paul Nicholls-trained front-runner Rubaud but was then pressed hard by Bialystok, from the Mullins Irish raiding party.
However, Favour And Fortune – who was sixth in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham – kept on finding more for jockey Tom Cannon and his willing spirit got its just reward, as he rallied to score by half a length at 5/1.
Bialystok was a touch unlucky in second, having been denied a clear passage after coming through to challenge at the final flight. Cracking Rhapsody finished third, while Afadil was fourth for Nicholls and Dan Skelton’s L’Eau Du Sud plugged on for fifth.
L’Eau Du Sud was sent off favourite, having finished second in the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury and the County Hurdle at Cheltenham, but he had been unfortunate to be penalised a total of 9lb for those runner-up efforts and that just took its toll.
King told Racing TV: “I must say that when Paul (Townend, on Bialystok) headed us halfway up the run-in, I thought we were in trouble, but he battled back very well.
“It’s the first time since the start of the season that he’s been back on better ground, we’ve been running him on heavy and he’s such a good-actioned horse and his jumping was much better on better ground. He’s finished for the season – win, lose or draw, we were going to pull up stumps after today. Off the top of my head, I’d like to stay hurdling for another season, but we’ll enjoy today and worry about that in the autumn. He will make a chaser, but I think that could be farther down the line.”
Proud Scotsman King added: “I love coming back up here, back home, the place is buzzing and it’s a great atmosphere.
“Having done the three festivals, I felt Cheltenham was a bit subdued, Aintree was brilliant and this nearly tops them, it’s lovely to come back up.”
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