Cheltenham Festival: Ruby Walsh on Willie Mullins Mares' Hurdle team
Ruby Walsh feels Burning Victory could be Willie Mullins' best chance in the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle at Cheltenham, a race which Ruby won an amazing eight times as a jockey.
Speaking on Paddy Power Media’s ‘From The Horse’s Mouth’ podcast ‘Cheltenham Countdown’ series, alongside host Patrick Kennelly, Rory Delargy and trader Frank Hickey, the leading TV pundit answered questions on the Closutton team for this year's race:
Stormy Ireland, winner of the Relkeel Hurdle, is it a worry that herself and Heaven Help Us may cut each other’s throats and can you see Danny [Mullins] keeping the ride?
"Will they cut each other’s throats – that’s a worry in every race where you have front runners so that’s a common predicament in any race that anybody rides in. Will Danny keep the ride? That I don’t know – he won the Relkeel on her, he won on her last year at Punchestown when she beat Minella Melody and he won on her at Fairyhouse too when she beat French Dynamite – Paul [Townend] picked the wrong one on the latter two occasions. He was in Tramore obviously when Danny rode Stormy Ireland in the Relkeel Hurdle. I don’t know is the answer.
"Will Danny keep the ride? That’s one of those awkward questions that if I was still first jockey in Willie Mullins’s I wouldn’t be asking until I had to. I doubt Paul Townend is going to ask and I’m certainly not going to ask for him. So If he does or if he doesn’t, she has run in the race in the past and probably wasn’t good enough, but I think this is a weaker renewal of the race to be quite honest with you. I don’t see a Benie Des Dieux, Quevega, an Apple’s Jade, Vroum Vroum Mag, Annie Power there’s no horse of that calibre in here and that’s probably why Stormy Ireland is where she is in the betting because being honest with you, she basically is a Grade 2 mare which we saw winning at the Relkeel yet this is a Grade 1 and there doesn’t look to be a Grade 1 horse in it – the best mare in training is running in the Champion Hurdle. No-one has any issue with that either so she has a chance Stormy Ireland."
A few more Willie Mullins horses in it – Burning Victory, Gauloise and Finest Evermore? Any you’d fancy?
"Gauloise was disappointing in Sandown – she has a long way to come forward, her form ties in with Skyace which probably isn’t rock solid. Burning Victory would be the one that would interest me – I thought she ran a cracker behind Klassical Dream and Flooring Porter at Leopardstown. They got a fair - Klassical Dream got a head start and Flooring Porter he got a head start on Burning Victory.
"She probably didn’t quite stay the three miles, dropping down in trip would suit her. I think her jumping has improved immensely, even since her run in the Galway Hurdle behind Saldier and her run then in the handicap behind Commander Of Fleet, she jumped better than she ever jumped at Leopardstown when beaten by Klassical Dream, she was going to be a good second when she ended up winning the Triumph, Goshen departed, so we know she handles Cheltenham, albeit that was the new course, this is going to be run on the old course but she would be the one of Willie’s that would probably be the most obvious one Burning Victory. That said on ratings for Concertista to come back over hurdles at 153ish she’d probably be head and shoulders on top here on ratings.
Has anything come to light of Gauloise’s performance – surely it was too bad to be true?
"It was too bad to be true – her first run of the season in against fit, hardened fittened horses. Martello Sky is a really strong stayer so maybe just fitness caught her out, but it was very disappointing."
Should Willie Mullins run Concertista?
"I would be surprised were he to do that. I think when Willie Mullins looks at this race he will think between Burning Victory, Stormy Ireland and if he can get Gauloise back to her best then he has three good chances in an open race and I wouldn’t discount the possibility of him even running Echoes In Rain. He does tend to keep horses where they’re gender is so I wouldn’t be surprised.
""I can’t see Concertista being one of them and to be honest with you the more I look at Burning Victory, I don’t think we have seen the best of her over hurdles yet. She gave Buzz 2lb in the Cesarewitch, Buzz is a 155-rated hurdler, there wasn’t that much between them at the line. I think on her mark, she’s officially 143 in Ireland, she could be a bit higher in the UK, but I think that she is the one filly that could run to that figure that Frank has mentioned of 150 to win this race and at 10-1 each-way she’d be my pick."
Finest Evermore?
"She’s another one I thought she ran really well at Leopardstown Frank you’re right – she stayed on well, she hadn’t run in a long time, she’s by Yeats, she’s sure to stay. She hadn’t run in over 12 months when she chased home Royal Kahala and was doing all her best work in the latter part of that race. Runs in the same colours as Heaven Help Us and she could be, no I wouldn’t put you off Frank no way. She did get injured in the race [at Punchestown] and she was off for a long time and I’d have no doubt she’d have improved for her race in Leopardstown, yeah definitely."
Echoes In Rain – two and a half miles, would that be a worry?
"Paul thought she might want a bit further actually after the last day – yeah look you never know. Which would add up to the County Hurdle as well, two miles one furlong on the New Course, would be stiffer than the inside track over two miles in Leopardstown. My preference would be the County as well for her, but you just never know with the man who is training her, her rating wouldn’t put her out of this race."
Paddy Power second Cheltenham Countdown show special bets:
Burning Victory to win the Mares’ Hurdle was 10 now 12
Dinoblue to win the Mares’ Novice Hurdle was 7 now 8
Allegorie De Vassy OR Brandy Love to win the Mares’ Novice Hurdle was 11-4 now 10-3
Willie Mullins to train the winner of the Mares’ Hurdle & the Mares’ Novice Hurdle was 3 now 7-2
Willie Mullins to train the winner of the Mares’ Hurdle was 15-8 now 9-4
These specials can be found here: https://www.paddypower.com/horse-racing?tab=specials
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