The exciting State Man features in an intriguing Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown on Sunday and Donn McClean looks ahead to the weekend highlights in Ireland.
Willie Mullins takes this Morgiana Hurdle business seriously.
We know that he does, because he has won it 11 times in total, and 10 times since 2011. His one lapse in the last 11 years was in 2020, when Abacadabras beat Saint Roi by a neck. If you had to nominate a point in the season, a weekend in the season, at which the Willie Mullins wheel habitually starts to gain momentum, you would probably say that it is the weekend of the Unibet Morgiana Hurdle (in memory of Michael Rafferty @AnaglogsDaughtr).
Not that it’s as easy as backing the Willie Mullins selected and going to collect. History tells you that. Remember 2015, when the 7/1 shot Nichols Canyon beat his stable companion, the 1/6 favourite Faugheen? And 2018, when Sharjah beat the same Faugheen? And the 2019 renewal, the five-horse race that was won by Saldier, the least well-fancied of the Willie Mullins triumvirate?
The champion trainer doesn’t make it easy this year either. From six entries, Saldier, Sharjah, State Man, Sir Gerhard, Vauban and Echoes In Rain, he is set to run three, the first-named three. The established order taking on the young pretenders.
We had this last year too, when they put Echoes In Rain in short initially, because of her potential, because of her impressive win in the Champion Novice Hurdle at Punchestown the previous April, because she was second favourite at the time for the 2022 Champion Hurdle behind Honeysuckle.
But she was officially rated 21lb inferior to Sharjah going into last year’s race, and she was receiving just 7lb. In the end, the market saw sense, the two Mullins runners flip-flopped, 6/4 Sharjah, 7/4 Echoes In Rain and, in the end, Echoes In Rain raced too freely and Sharjah beat Zanahiyr by three lengths.
There isn’t as great a disparity between the Willie Mullins Sophomore and the Seniors on official ratings this year as there was 12 months ago. Sharjah is rated 162, Saldier is rated 161. State Man is rated 159. He is almost on a par.
Sharjah and Saldier are the established order, collectively the winners of three of the last four renewals of the Morgiana Hurdle, winners of eight Grade 1 races and two Galway Hurdles and over €1.2 million in prize money between them. Sharjah is a top class hurdler, but he is nine now, and we haven’t seen him since last December, while Saldier was beaten three times last season after he won the Grade 3 Horse & Jockey Hotel Hurdle at Tipperary in October last year. They both have questions to answer now.
State Man also has questions to answer. He was a novice last season, he has raced just five times over hurdles, he has to take the next step forward now. But the Doctor Dino gelding coped well with the hurly-burly of a County Hurdle at Cheltenham in March, and he was impressive in the end in winning the Grade 1 Alanna Homes Champion Novice Hurdle over two and a half miles at the Punchestown Festival in April.
You can’t read too much into jockey bookings here, because Patrick Mullins has ridden Sharjah, another son of Doctor Dino, in 12 of his last 14 races, including to all four Matheson Hurdle wins, as well as to his Galway Hurdle victory in 2018. Even so, it is not a negative that State Man will have champion jockey Paul Townend for company. He could be the one.
Jesse Evans is probably going to have to put up a career-best performance if he is going to be involved, but Teahupoo would be of interest if he could get back to the level of form that he showed when he won the Red Mills Hurdle at Gowran Park in February, when he easily beat Darasso and Quilixios and Saldier. He could be a player in what promises to be an exciting contest.
Noel Meade could hold the key to the Grade 2 Liam and Valerie Brennan Florida Pearl Novice Chase 35 minutes earlier, fielding, as he does, both Idas Boy and Thedevilscoachman. A winner over two miles and seven furlongs last year as a novice hurdler, Idas Boy was impressive in winning on his chasing bow over two and a half miles at Cork last month, and he put up an even better performance in defeat last time in a Grade 3 contest back at Cork, when he went down by just a half a length to El Barra.
The Gigginstown House horse was well backed that day, and there was a lot to like about the manner in which he rallied on the run-in to get as close to his talented rival as he got, the pair of them miles clear of their rivals. He should appreciate the step up to two miles and six and a half furlongs on Sunday.
Thedevilscoachman was beaten twice over fences last season, but he was impressive in winning the Grade 2 Boyne Hurdle at Navan in February on his final run of the term, and he was good in winning his beginners’ chase at Galway last month. That is usually a good beginners’ chase, it has been won in the past by Jessies Dream and Last Instalment and Don Cossack and Presenting Percy, and JP McManus’ horse won it nicely. His jumping was much better than it was over fences last season, and he could progress to take a high rank among the staying novice chasers this season.
It will be good to see Minella Crooner back too. Second behind Minella Cocooner in the Grade 1 Nathaniel Lacy and Partners Novice Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival in February, when he did well to get back into the race after making a mistake at the second last flight, he is a half-brother to six-time chase winner Adrrastos, and it will be good to see Gordon Elliott’s horse over fences for the first time on Sunday.
Gordon Elliott has won the last two renewals of the Oak Lodge Landscapes Craddockstown Novice Chase, and he will be represented by Mars Harper and Grand Paradis in the latest renewal at Punchestown on Saturday.
The Cullentra trainer is assembling a serious team of novice chasers for the season ahead, with Mighty Potter, Three Stripe Life, Hollow Games, and Gerri Colombe all looking really good in winning their respective beginners’ chases on chasing debut in the last two weeks.
Mars Harper shaped encouragingly in finishing second behind his stable companion Mighty Potter on his chasing debut at Down Royal two weeks ago and, a good handicap hurdler last season, he could be an even better chaser in time.
Grand Paradis has more experience as a chaser. Winner of the Grade 3 Michael Purcell Memorial Novice Hurdle at Thurles over two miles and five furlongs on heavy ground, he got off the mark over fences on his penultimate run, when he made almost all the running to win a two-and-a-half-mile beginners’ chase at Cork back in April.
He was well beaten by the talented pair El Barra and Idas Boy back at Cork last time, but that was his first run since. He could step forward from that, and it is significant that Gordon Elliott is dropping him back down to the minimum trip for the first time since he won his maiden hurdle at Fairyhouse in February 2021.
He could have most to fear from Hallowed Star, an impressive winner of his beginners’ chase last month at Galway. Owned by the Mees, John Hanlon’s horse has recorded three of his five wins at Ballybrit but, winner of his maiden hurdle at Roscommon and winner of his bumper at Tipperary, he might be more versatile than his silks and his Galway record suggests.
The Lily & Wild Beginners’ Chase that opens proceedings at Punchestown on Saturday is usually an informative contest. A maximum of five runners are set to line up for the latest renewal of a race that has a roll of honour which includes French Dynamite, Asterion Forlonge, Faugheen, Monalee, Outlander, Valseur Lido and Champagne Fever, but Kilcruit and Journey With Me are numbered among the quintet.
An outstanding bumper horse, second to Sir Gerhard in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham and winner of the Champion Bumper at Punchestown, Kilcruit won just once in five attempts over hurdles last season, but, third in last season’s Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, Willie Mullins’ horse could progress to be a better chaser than hurdler this season.
As is Journey With Me. Winner of his only point-to-point and his only bumper – the Gowran Park bumper that his trainer had won the previous year with Bob Olinger – Henry de Bromhead’s horse beat Minella Crooner and Kilcruit when he won his maiden hurdle at Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival last year.
He was tired when he fell at the final flight in the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham in March but, out of a half-sister to dual Peterborough Chase winner Racing Demon, the Robcour gelding is obviously a really exciting recruit to chasing. He is another fascinating runner on what should be a really interesting and informative weekend of high-class National Hunt racing in Ireland.
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