Adam Houghton was taken with Fact To File's impressive win at Leopardstown on Thursday and thinks he could develop into a leading Cheltenham Festival contender.
Patrick Mullins might have had one eye on Fact To File as a potential partner in the National Hunt Chase at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival, but Mark Walsh can be forgiven if he's not in a hurry to give up the ride, such was the thrill last season's Champion Bumper runner-up gave him in winning Thursday's beginners' chase at Leopardstown.
It's rare for a horse at the top level to skip a hurdling career and go straight over fences, but Fact Or File's relative inexperience is unlikely to hold him back as a novice chaser judged on an assured display, fully confirming the promise of last month's debut at Navan as he cruised to an emphatic 17-length defeat of Zanahiyr.
Fact To File really impressed with his enthusiastic way of going about things and it was he who looked the fastest horse in the race at all stages, certainly more comfortable than Zanahiyr, who was seemingly struggling to go the gallop from some way out on chasing debut.
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You would have thought it would be the other way around. After all, Zanahiyr had been quick enough to finish third – albeit 13 lengths behind Constitution Hill – in last season's Champion Hurdle, whereas Fact To File appeared to lack a turn of foot in his three bumper runs, hence Mullins already having designs on the National Hunt Chase and a step up to that marathon trip.
How could things pan out so differently here with the simple addition of fences to the equation?
With that question in mind, it was interesting to hear what Ruby Walsh – still a big part of the Closutton yard which is home to Fact To File – had to say when speaking from the track on Racing TV afterwards.
"Fact To File was a horse that maybe lacked a gear as a bumper horse and we thought he was an out-and-out stayer," Walsh summed up.
"But from what I saw today, he doesn’t need to go any further [than two miles and five furlongs] – he could even go a little bit shorter. He has loads of pace and jumping has made this horse a much faster horse.
"I’m not comparing him to Moscow Flyer or anything like that, but jumping made Moscow Flyer a faster horse. Jumping really is this horse’s forte and I’d be really impressed with him."
It was a performance which had echoes of that produced by Galopin des Champs in the same race in 2021, the first step on his climb to the top of the chasing tree.
At the time Galopin des Champs was among the market leaders for the Brown Advisory at the Cheltenham Festival having won a Grade 1 over three miles as a novice hurdler the previous season, but it was decided that his style of racing – characterised by bold jumping and powerful front-running – would be better suited to the shorter trip of the Turners, a race he would have won easily but for falling at the last.
After this performance there must be a good chance that Fact To File's choice of Festival target will boil down to one of those two races. Gaillard du Mesnil he is not, the horse who needed every yard of the trip when giving Mullins a fourth success in the National Hunt Chase in March. But is he a Galopin des Champs or a Florida Pearl?
The most likely answer is that he's neither with very few horses ever getting to that kind of level, but there are definite similarities between Fact To File and Florida Pearl, the 1997 Champion Bumper winner who skipped a hurdling career to go straight over fences later that year.
Like Fact To File, Florida Pearl was trained by Willie Mullins and his performance when winning a beginners' chase at this meeting was hugely impressive. He ended his debut season over fences unbeaten in three starts, notably putting up a top-class effort to win what is now the Brown Advisory at Cheltenham, back when the Turners wasn't around to muddy the waters with regards Festival targets.
🗣️ "He jumped brilliant."
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) December 28, 2023
Mark Walsh impressed with Fact To File's taking performance over fences at @LeopardstownRC 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/OgnouW1Y0P
The firepower that Mullins now has to juggle also complicates things further compared to the days of Florida Pearl when his exploits – which also included four wins in the Hennessy Cognac Gold Cup (or the Irish Gold Cup as it's known today) – really helped to put the stable on the map.
Now Mullins has several potentially top novice chasers in his care, headed by Gaelic Warrior, so impressive when winning the Faugheen Novice Chase at Limerick, not even an hour after Fact To File's Leopardstown rout.
As Ruby Walsh said, Fact To File clearly doesn't lack pace should connections decide to stick at shorter trips, but Mullins has a habit of keeping his aces apart at Cheltenham and Gaelic Warrior seems to have the Turners cornered already as the general 5/4 favourite in the ante-post betting.
Connections have always thought Fact To File would stay well, so it's easy to see the Brown Advisory becoming a likely target if he can prove himself at the top level in the coming weeks, something his trainer clearly thinks he is capable of.
"He’s a horse I’ve loved since the first day he came into the stable," Mullins said fondly in the aftermath of the Leopardstown win. "I think he could go the whole way with a bit of luck – you need a lot of luck in this game."
Suddenly, the 8/1 for the Brown Advisory looks a very attractive price, while the 14/1 for the Turners also makes some appeal on the off chance Mullins decides to throw Fact To File in against Gaelic Warrior who, lest we forget, has been beaten on his two previous visits to the Festival, showing a tendency to jump markedly right.
As for Patrick Mullins' hopes of resuming his association with Fact To File following their time in bumpers together, they seem to be fading fast, though an opportunity could come up one day if Mark Walsh and Paul Townend were otherwise engaged.
That would just leave Mullins and cousin Danny to argue it out – it definitely wouldn't be the first time, anyway.
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