AFTER spring festivals at Cheltenham, Fairyhouse and Aintree where the ground was soft at best, a word that we haven’t seen in a while – good – made it into the going description for Punchestown, and some jockeys on the opening day of the meeting were going faster than they had been in months.
The leaders went off hard in the Champion Novice Hurdle, just two of the seven finishers posting finishing speed percentages of 100% or higher in the race, and it was a similar story in the handicap hurdle over the same trip that was next on the card, three of the 20 finishers with a finishing speed of 100% or higher, when par for the Punchestown hurdle track is around 103%.
That suited hold-up horses in both races, but even so, Mystical Power deserves plenty of praise for winning the Grade 1 having sweated up beforehand, and having run at both Cheltenham and Aintree, Firefox no less for taking in the same two meetings.
Supreme winner Slade Steel could only manage third and looked ill-suited by the move to a sharper track on better ground, inclined to hang left and go that way at his obstacles, but he did well to get involved in the straight having seemed in bother down the side of his track.
Often struggle
Henry de Bromhead’s Cheltenham winners often struggle to hit those heights for the rest of the season before coming back to form in autumn.
The two-mile handicap was another strongly run race, the first three all coming from behind, but the fourth Kings Hill (who had been ninth in the Supreme) shaped well having been up with the pace.
He’s done all his racing around two miles this season but looks as if an extra half mile will suit, while the fifth, Nusret, showed a bit after a break after having to pick his way through.
It was a similar story with the pace in the Champion Chase, the first four all racing in mid-division or rear early, Banbridge in fifth turning in, third jumping the last, but managing to get up at the post to win a second Grade 1 over fences.
Captain Guinness went through the race like the best horse, his jumping notably slick, but again showed he wants the barest of two miles.
Swerve this race
Less dramatic was the Champion Novice Chase over three miles where little happened for the first three-quarters of the race before Spillane’s Tower showed why his owner was able to swerve this race with Fact To File and Corbetts Cross.
The manner of his success was similar to his previous three wins this season, arriving late and leaving the impression that he had more to give, and this was a fine effort considering a long season.
He was a different kind of busy to the likes of Mystical Power, not travelling to England at any point, but seven runs are a lot by any standard, and he looked better than ever here.
FLAT racing has taken a back seat this past week, but there was some decent action at Cork and Navan last weekend, and Dermot Weld got his campaign up and running with winners on back-to-back days, both of them promising types, while also having an unlucky loser that might prove best of them all.
It was his first winner since December 22nd, but Weld had been notably quiet in the early part of the season, just 12 turf runners prior to last Friday, the trainer making the point that he had been keen to avoid the very testing ground that predominated in spring.
Both his winners, Spoken Truth and Ezeliya, had good reputations as two-year-olds, the former well-backed when having his first run at Weld’s favoured late season trialling ground, Leopardstown in October, the latter getting beaten at the same track in August, a ride Chris Hayes was still criticising himself for after Tahiyra won the Matron.
Spoken Truth is a full-brother to Homeless Songs and cruised through his maiden at Cork, pulling clear of a Ballydoyle runner with decent juvenile form, the pair in turn four and a half lengths clear of the fourth, a solid handicapper with a mark of 77, and rating the race off that one puts the winner in the low- to mid-90s.
So superior
He did flash the tail mid-race here which was concerning but was so superior that there was no need to battle, and his next run, most likely in the Gallinule, will tell more. He is entered in both Derbys.
Ezeliya also flashed her tail in winning the Salsabil at Navan, this time in the finish, but there seemed to be no issue with her resolution as she finished off strongly to beat a pair of fillies that already had a run this season, shaping as if further would suit.
That brings in the possibility of Epsom, Weld commenting afterwards that she is a small filly, but that might be no bad thing at a track where big types can be uncomfortable.
That pair may have won but it could be argued that the runner-up finish of Sumiha in the Noblesse was better than either. She looked to have the perfect position down the rail, getting cover and taking the shortest route, but the steady gallop meant she ran into trouble as the pace quickened in the straight and she could not get out until it was too late, covering each of the final two furlongs faster than anything in the field per Course Track sectionals.
Similar
She had shown a similar turn-of-foot when winning on debut at the Curragh last August from Thunder Roll, the winner here, despite that one having previous group experience reverting to a maiden.
The form of that race worked out subsequently, with the third and fourth winning next time, and Sumiha looks the ideal type for what is one of Weld’s specialist subjects: group and listed races for older fillies and mares.
Since 2010, the trainer is 55/246 in such races in Ireland and Britain, an impressive strikerate of 22.4%, and while he is a little while without a winner in such races in those countries, the figures don’t capture Tarnawa’s successes further afield.
ONE could easily run out of superlatives to describe Willie Mullins winning the British Trainers’ Championship, but one angle that should not be underplayed is his diplomacy in managing such a wide spread of owners and keeping them all mostly happy.
During the past 12 months, and prior to the start of Punchestown, Mullins won 47 high value races in Ireland and Britain, the definition for a high-value race being a pot worth the equivalent of £25,000 per Horse Race Base.
Those 47 races were won by 33 individual horses and 18 unique owners, J.P. McManus tops with eight wins, followed closely by the Donnellys and the Double Green with seven each.
Mullins won the title from Cheltenham onwards but the winning point as such came at Ayr where he won four races with horses one Twitter wag described as no one having heard of before!
That is a touch harsh, especially on the evergreen Sharjah, but there is a grain of truth in it; of the 18 runners Mullins had on Scottish Grand National day, only five had run at the earlier major spring festivals at Leopardstown and Cheltenham.
Furthermore, only three of his raiding team were sent off favourite, with three of his winners returned at relatively big prices, 18/1, 16/1 and 7/1.
One also has to wonder whether this success will prove the crowning achievement of a career or that start of a fresh horizon for the yard?
Mullins was asked about whether he would target the title more overtly from earlier in the season next term, and he still seemed to be working over the idea, while he only had 11 runners in the Britain prior to this Christmas this season.
He went on to say that he ideally likes to target three horses for a race with the hope that at least one will get there, though I suspect the number is higher looking at his multiple entry approach over recent seasons, but the point about having more than one option holds, and running more horses in Britain might weaken his challenge for races at home.
That should perk up the attention of Gordon Elliott, Henry de Bromhead and Gavin Cromwell, though British trainers might be hoping he sticks to his usual approach to travelling horses next autumn and early winter.