Faugheen features heavily as Irish racing expert Donn McClean looks back on a superb weekend of action at Leopardstown.
Some weekend. It’s just difficult to know where to begin.
Faugheen. Begin with Faugheen. Begin with the loudest cheer of the weekend, the one that accompanied Faugheen and Paul Townend when they came back into view in the parade ring after they had won the Flogas Novice Chase on Sunday, and a cheer that trumped even that one when he actually got to the winner’s enclosure. A hero returned. Rain or no rain.
Sometimes a horse just ‘gets’ the crowd. Faugheen is one of those horses. And the crowd ‘gets’ him. It didn’t matter if they backed him or not. Many did, many didn’t. But they clapped and cheered and welcomed him back anyway. Smiles all over the place.
One of the widest smiles was the one that was on the face of Paul Townend, who had popped Rich Ricci's horse over the 14 fences and got the better of Battleoverdoyen and driven his horse up the run-in to get home by a half a length from his stable companion Easy Game, half his age and the width of the racecourse away.
Faugheen had his Neptune Hurdle in the bag before Easy Game was born.
Willie Mullins’ smile was wide too. One of the most special winners he had ever had, he said.
They talk about precedent, about 12-year-olds not being able to do this and not being able to do that. But Faugheen is no ordinary 12-year-old. They just don’t make 12-year-old novice chasers. There is no precedent.
And they talk about what’s next. A 12-year-old who has won a Neptune Hurdle and a Christmas Hurdle and an Irish Champion Hurdle and a Champion Hurdle and a Punchestown Champion Stayers’ Hurdle, who has now won two Grade 1 chases. Eleven Grade 1 wins.
The RSA Chase maybe, the Marsh Chase maybe. There will be younger horses around, there are always younger horses around when you are 12, but Faugheen is a dual Cheltenham Festival winner, and stranger things have happened.
What’s next for Delta Work is more easily identifiable. Gordon Elliott’s horse was very good in winning the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup. Crucially, he jumped well, he jumped as well as we have ever seen him jump, and he moved nicely through his race under a patient Jack Kennedy.
He moved up easily in behind Kemboy and Presenting Percy over the second last fence and, switched towards the inside on the run to the last by his rider, he picked up well and got to that obstacle in front. He got in a little tight to the fence, and that gave his two pursuers a chance, but he dug deep on the run-in. He was always holding Kemboy’s challenge.
It was another step up the ladder by the Gigginstown House horse. A top class staying novice chaser last season, he was beaten at Down Royal on his debut this term, but he had excuses that day, he has never been at his best on his seasonal debut, and he put that performance behind him with a gutsy performance to win the Savills Chase at Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival. He was good that day, he battled on well to get home by a head from Monalee, but he was even better on Sunday.
Kemboy went into the race as the joint highest-rated steeplechaser in training, and he was strong in the market, with his seasonal debut under his belt. Yet, Delta Work beat him by a length and a half, and he left the impression that he had at least that in hand.
There are lots of positives too in terms of the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Importantly, Delta Work obviously has Cheltenham Festival form. He won the Pertemps Final in 2018 and he finished a close-up third in the RSA Chase last year when he didn’t really have an ideal run through the race. Also, the step up to three miles and two and a half furlongs will probably suit. He is all stamina. He was only five when he won the Pertemps Final over three miles.
As well as that, he is still only seven years old now and he has raced just eight times over fences, so there could be even more to come. He is a massive player in the Gold Cup picture.
Asterion Forlonge was also very good in winning the Chanelle Pharma Novice Hurdle. He and favourite Easywork went at it from early, they disputed the lead pretty much from flagfall, until the Willie Mullins horse went on on the run to the home turn.
They finished tired, the ground was holding and there was no let-up in their toe-to-toe, but third-placed Mt Leinster could never get close enough to the leading pair to land a blow, and Asterion Forlonge ran all the way to the line for Danny Mullins.
The Coastal Path gelding continues to excite. Winner of his only point-to-point for Pat Doyle, when he beat good novice hurdler Assemble, he wasn’t overly impressive in winning his bumper at Thurles in November, but he was much better on his hurdling bow at Naas last month.
He did jump a little to his right at Naas, and that tendency was there again on Sunday, but it wasn’t as pronounced, despite the fact that he raced up on the outside of Easywork. Importantly, he has an engine, he powered all the way to the line.
It will be interesting to see what his Cheltenham Festival target will be now. He races like he will get further than two miles, and Willie Mullins said afterwards that he had been thinking that he was a stayer, and he may be in time, but his trainer seemed to be favouring the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle as this year’s Cheltenham target.
Asterion Forlonge’s owner Marie Donnelly already has Shishkin for the Supreme, and the Nicky Henderson-trained gelding was impressive in winning at Newbury last month, but she also has The Big Getaway with Willie Mullins, and The Big Getaway looks every inch a Ballymore Hurdle horse. Either way, they’ll probably need the white cap.
The Tattersalls Spring Juvenile Hurdle threw up as many questions as answers. Aspire Tower went into the race as the outstanding Irish-trained juvenile hurdler, and Henry de Bromhead’s horse may well have won had he not come down at the final flight, his rider Rachael Blackmore appeared to have at least a little up her sleeve. But he would have had to battle to beat the two Joseph O’Brien horses, Cerberus and A Wave Of The Sea.
Cerberus seemed to idle when he was left in front after the favourite’s departure, as Barry Geraghty conjured a run out of A Wave Of The Sea that saw him finish off his race strongly and get home by over a length from Wolf Prince, with Cerberus a neck back in third.
Aspire Tower remains a Triumph Hurdle contender, but the case is obviously not as compelling now as it was before Sunday. A Wave Of The Sea had to put up a performance in order to get himself back into the Triumph Hurdle picture, and he did that.
JP McManus' horse beat Cerberus at Punchestown in October, and he was impressive in winning at Down Royal in November. Cerberus exacted his revenge at Fairyhouse, but that race developed into a bit of a tactical battle, and that didn’t appear to suit A Wave Of The Sea. The good pace that Aspire Tower set suited him on Sunday and, cheekpieces removed, his jumping was good. A good test in the Triumph Hurdle should suit him well.
Honeysuckle dominated Saturday’s preamble. Henry de Bromhead’s mare had questions to answer too in the PCI Irish Champion Hurdle, taking on the boys again and dropping back down to two miles and racing left-handed, but she answered them all.
It looked like it was going to be easier than it turned out to be in the end, when she took over in front from her stable companion Petit Mouchoir on the run to the final flight and moved over onto the inside rail. It looked like she was going to go on and win by a couple of lengths. But she was ponderous at the last as the grey horse flew it on the near side. She ceded the lead to her stable companion and, with Darver Star finishing strongly down the near side, she had to dig deep to wrest the lead back, getting home by a half a length in the end.
So, Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham or Mares’ Hurdle? It’s a nice problem to have, but it’s not an easy one. You won’t know what the correct answer was until after the races have been run, and you may not know even then for sure.
You could run well and finish third or fourth in the Champion Hurdle over two miles, and then you would kick yourself for not going for the Mares’ Hurdle over two and a half, especially if Benie Des Dieux eschews the mares’ race and goes for the Stayers' Hurdle. There's no rush though. There’s time to take stock.
There are no such dilemmas with Notebook. It’s Arkle Trophy all-in for the Gigginstown House horse. It was a shame that Fakir D’Oudairies was a late scratching from the ERSG Arkle Chase on Saturday, that we were deprived of the Racing Post Novice Chase re-match, but Notebook still had a worthy adversary in Cash Back, who pushed him all the way to the line. But the Samum gelding responded, he dug deep for Rachael Blackmore, and he got home by three parts of a length in the end from a talented and highly progressive rival.
Notebook was a good hurdler, a 135-rated hurdler but, as is often the case with Henry de Bromhead horses, he is an even better chaser. He is a fluent and accurate jumper of his fences and, tried over two and a half miles on several occasions last season over hurdles, he is a pure two-miler. He is a worthy Arkle favourite.
Cash Back also deserves his shot at the Racing Post Arkle. Willie Mullins’ horse was impressive in winning at Naas on his previous run, and he kept on admirably here for Danny Mullins. He could improve for this, just his third run over fences, and his prominent style of racing should be well suited to the Arkle.
Latest Exhibition dug deep too for Bryan Cooper to win the Nathaniel Lacy & Partners Novice Hurdle. Paul Nolan’s horse didn’t travel like the most likely winner for most of the way, but he is tough and game and he stayed on strongly to hit the front half way up the run in, going on to win by two lengths in the end from Cobbler’s Way and Longhouse Poet.
It had been a little while since Paul Nolan had had his last Grade 1 winner (Defy Logic, 2013), but we know that he is a top class trainer, and he knows this family well. He trained Latest Exhibition’s dam, Aura About You, for Latest Exhibition’s breeder and now part-owner Jim Mernagh, to win a Grade 3 contest over two miles and six furlongs, and to finish third in a Mares' Hurdle.
It looks like Latest Exhibition is all about stamina, he is just the sort of horse you want to have on your side in the thick of the Albert Bartlett Hurdle, where the step up in distance and the extra premium that will be placed on stamina could see him improve again.
Min was bidding to land his third Ladbrokes Dublin Chase in a row, but he ultimately had to give best to his stable companion Chacun Pour Soi.
Chacun Pour Soi left the impression at the time that he would step up on his seasonal re-appearance, when he was beaten by A Plus Tard in the Paddy’s Rewards Chase, and he duly did that here.
Willie Mullins’ horse put up one of the outstanding novice chasing performances last season when he beat Defi Du Seuil in the Ryanair Novice Chase at the Punchestown Festival, and it will be fascinating to see how it pans out when, all going well, the pair of them meet again in the Champion Chase. They currently bet best-price 2/1 Defi Du Seuil, best-price 7/2 Chacun Pour Soi, and that disparity looks to be greater than it should be.
For more from Donn, visit www.donnmcclean.com
