Mullins eyeing Stayers Hurdle with brilliant Warrior

Irish Mirror Novice Hurdle (Grade 1)

GAELIC Warrior (4/5f) crowned an enterprising season by recording a facile win in the Grade 1 Irish Mirror Novice Hurdle on his first start over three miles for Willie Mullins and Paul Townend.

Having got to within seven lengths of Impaire Et Passe in the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle, the Susannah Ricci-owned five-year-old was clear on ratings here but had to prove his stamina. He did that in emphatic fashion, as he was able to overcome having all his momentum stopped at a crucial time when running into a dead end approaching the straight, before coming back on the bridle for Paul Townend to saunter clear of Noel Meade’s Affordale Fury, who was in turn clear of the 80/1 shot Franciscan Rock.

“The trip was a big help to him,” Mullins said. “I was thinking the ground would be a great help to him but Paul thinks it wasn’t. Paul was once again ice cool just sitting behind a wall of horses waiting for the right gap to come.

“He has the option of going chasing but we will have to have a good look at keeping him over hurdles. He would have no trouble going chasing so we’ll get home and think about it, but I was impressed with what I saw, the way he improved for the trip. He looks to have the Stayers’ Hurdle written all over him.”

The runner-up’s trainer Noel Meade cut a somewhat disappointed figure beside the two pole afterwards. He certainly wasn’t the only one looking over at Willie Mullins this week but his horse ran another fine race in defeat, having finished second in the Albert Bartlett at Cheltenham as well.

“I think the winner is very special,” Meade said. “I’m proud of my fella, he had a hard race at Cheltenham and you never know how they’re going to come out of it until they run. Maybe he could have got a little bit closer if he was fresher.”

Gaelic Warrior was rated 129 when he threw away the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham last term by jumping violently to his right, but it was all for the better as it meant he could race as a novice hurdler this season.

He took the traditionally ultra competitive Liffey Handicap Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival off a mark of 143, before going on to finish second at Cheltenham and three-mile hurdling could be his game now.

He was cut for a multitude of races at Cheltenham next year, with 8/1 the general assessment for his trainer’s initially favoured option of the Stayers’ Hurdle.