William Hill County Handicap Hurdle

EVEN with changes to make the Cheltenham Festival’s handicaps more competitive this season, Willie Mullins continues to be the most potent force at Prestbury Park. He followed up his Coral Cup strike on Wednesday with a County Hurdle gem in the shape of Kargese, who led home a Closutton 1-3-4 as the well-backed 3/1 favourite under Paul Townend.

There was an air of inevitability about the outcome from well before the turn for home, with Kenny Alexander’s five-year-old really catching the eye in how she travelled.

To his credit, the Earls family’s Ndaawi wasn’t going down without a fight on the front end and kept going to finish a length-and-a-half second, with Absurde and Ethical Diamond running on for the minor money in the colours of the HOS Syndicate.

“She’s as tough as anything that I have ever seen,” said Mullins, after making it a record-extending eight wins in the County Hurdle.

“You saw her here last year when second in the Triumph [having previously been at the Dublin Racing Festival], then she went on to Aintree. Usually four-year-olds aren’t able to do that sort of thing.

“She has come out again this year and she is as tough as nails. We thought she was nicely handicapped. We thought maybe all last year’s four-year-olds were better handicapped than this year’s juveniles so we said we would take our chance and they have run well.

Spring targets

“Mentally, she is so tough as well. She was too keen at Ascot, but I wanted to get a run into her and it was going to be very hard to bring her here without a run. You saw how hard she raced last season, and she is hard enough on herself in every race, so we felt better to give her an easier autumn then concentrate on the spring.

“I’m going to celebrate today and then we will decide what we are going to do. Normally I go to Punchestown, but I would have to look if there is something either at Ayr or maybe Aintree. She will in time go over a longer trip, but I think she would be too hard on herself and too hard on the jockey.”

Townend, now the most successful rider in County history on five wins, added: “She was keen today all right! That’s her though, she has the heart of a lion. I was in front a lot sooner than I wanted. But it might have actually helped me that when I got there, she parked a little bit and gave herself a breath of air, and that meant she could repel what was coming at me at the back of the last.”