DRF: Who might benefit if Willie Mullins does not

Is it time for ‘Willie’s benefit show’ again?

Nicky Henderson’s tongue-in-cheek description of the Dublin Racing Festival, which he also hailed as ‘a tremendous asset and well done Ireland’, when discussing his reluctance to send Constitution Hill to Leopardstown on ITV Racing earlier this month highlighted the very real dominance of Willie Mullins at the ‘DRF’. The meeting will be held for the seventh time next weekend and has quickly established itself as a highlight of the jumping calendar in the period between Christmas and the Cheltenham Festival.

There are eight Grade 1 contests spread over the two days at Leopardstown which means a total of 47 such races have been run at the meeting between 2018 and 2023 – not 48 because the Dublin Chase was a Grade 2 contest in its first year. Mullins has won more than half of those DRF Grade 1 races with a total of 26, including, incidentally, all six renewals of the Dublin Chase, Grade 1 or not. Those Grade 1 races which haven’t fallen to Mullins are often waiting to be snapped up by Gordon Elliott instead who came away with two such victories in 2019 and one at each of the five other DRFs to date.

The combined dominance of Ireland’s two biggest jumping yards in the DRF’s best races has been particularly marked in the last three seasons. In each of those last three years, Mullins has had six Grade 1 winners, so when combined with Elliott’s winner, that leaves only one to go elsewhere.

A similar scenario could be on the cards again next weekend, but here are five horses to watch from other stables who could be ones to benefit if Willie does not.

JETARA – Jessica Harrington

Nathaniel Lacy & Partners Solicitors Novice Hurdle, Saturday

Jessica Harrington won the ‘Golden Cygnet’ twice in its pre-DRF days as a Grade 2 contest and with the help of her allowance her mare Jetara sets the standard in this year’s renewal. Out of a sister to the stable’s Champion Hurdle winner Jezki, Jetara has shown plenty of improvement in what is her second campaign over hurdles. After an easy win in a maiden at Fairyhouse in November, she has gone on to complete a hat-trick the following month in a listed novice for mares at Punchestown and then a Grade 3 mare hurdle at Leopardstown where she travelled smoothly on the way to beating the Mullins-trained pair Pink In The Park and Risk Belle. Jetara holds a Mares’ Hurdle entry at Cheltenham and will be ridden for the first time here by Rachael Blackmore.

INTELLOTTO - Joseph O’Brien

Spring Juvenile Hurdle, Saturday

Joseph O’Brien has already won the Spring Juvenile Hurdle twice, with Sir Erec in 2019 and A Wave of The Sea a year later and had placed horses in both of those editions too. He has an interesting contender this year with Intellotto in the Simon Munir/Isaac Souede colours who was runner-up in two of his three starts in maidens on the Flat for the same stable. Gelded after those runs, Intellotto made his hurdling debut at Leopardstown just after Christmas and got off to a winning start just as Sir Erec had done in the same race. Looking stronger the further he went, Intellotto was well on top at the finish in beating the filly Lucy Wang by four and a half lengths with the stable’s better-fancied runner Lark In The Mornin only sixth. Intellotto looks sure to progress and hold his own in better company.

MARINE NATIONALE – Barry Connell

Irish Arkle Novice Chase, Saturday

Barry Connell pulled off a Grade 1 win at last year’s DRF with Good Land in the Nathaniel Lacy & Partners Solicitors Novice Hurdle. That horse went on to contest the Ballymore at Cheltenham, in which he finished fourth, but the stable’s other leading novice hurdler last season, Marine Nationale, skipped the DRF and went fresh to Cheltenham where he was a ready winner of the Supreme from the Mullins-trained favourite Facile Vega. Marine Nationale has only been seen out once since but after a near flawless transition to fences at Leopardstown last month he’s odds on for the Arkle at Cheltenham as well as the Irish equivalent he contests first on Saturday. Wearing a tongue tie after a reported breathing operation, Marine Nationale jumped nimbly in front in a change of tactics and won his beginners chase with plenty in hand suggesting he’ll take all the beating upped in grade.

FASTORSLOW – Martin Brassil

Irish Gold Cup, Saturday

Can he do it again? Fastorslow has twice beaten the reigning Gold Cup winner Galopin des Champs but is probably up against a peak-form version of that rival this time unlike in their two previous encounters. The outsider of five when tailed off last in the Dublin Chase at last year’s DRF, Fastorslow left that effort behind when going down by a neck to subsequent Grand National winner Corach Rambler in the Ultima at Cheltenham and then inflicted Galopin des Champs’ first defeat in completed starts over fences in the Punchestown Gold Cup. Fastorslow showed that was no fluke when having Galopin des Champs back in third when both reappeared in the John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase in November but the Gold Cup winner was clearly all the sharper for that run when powering clear to win the Savills Chase by a wide margin last month. Fastorslow missed that race when the ground softened but looks the chief threat to last year’s winner if taking his chance this time.

A DREAM TO SHARE – John & Thomas Kiely

Future Stars NH Flat Race, Saturday

Unbeaten in five bumpers last season, A Dream To Share had his intended novice hurdling debut delayed by injury this season but he’s still qualified for bumpers and should prove very tough to beat in a race he also won last year. Sent off at 12/1, A Dream To Share made a big impression when defying a penalty twelve months ago to beat the Mullins-trained favourite Fact To File and then saw off an ever bigger battalion from Closutton when readily following up from the same rival under more testing conditions in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham. Rounding off a perfect campaign under teenage amateur John Gleeson, A Dream To Share ended 2022/23 by landing the odds from another Mullins representative Tullyhill. With the third beaten a total of more than ten lengths, that was almost certainly A Dream To Share’s best effort last season and he sets a high standard for the rest here.

CORBETTS CROSS – Emmet Mullins

Ladbrokes Novice Chase, Sunday

Mullins and Elliott dominate the entries in this contest but the former’s nephew Emmet has a smart contender with Corbetts Cross for J. P. McManus. A strong traveller, he’s progressed with each run over fences this season, and got off the mark at the second attempt in a very well-contested beginners chase at Fairyhouse at the beginning of December when chased home by Elliott’s Three Card Brag. In his two other chases, Corbetts Cross has been placed behind Willie Mullins’ Grangeclare West (whom he could face again here) but was strongly backed to turn the tables from their previous meeting when six lengths second to him last time in the Neville Hotels Novice Chase at Leopardstown. While the winner was impressive, Corbetts Cross beat the rest readily and remains capable of better.

FARREN GLORY - Gordon Elliott

Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle, Sunday

Mullins has won this contest every year since 2013 with the exception of 2018 when the first running of the race as part of the DRF went to Samcro trained by Gordon Elliott. While Farren Glory doesn’t have the same reputation that Samcro had in his novice days, he’s an exciting prospect for the same stable who’s going from strength to strength over hurdles. After comfortably making all in a maiden at Clonmel in November, he took the step up in grade in his stride to land the Royal Bond Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse the following month when he did well to run down stablemate King of Kingsfield after losing momentum at the final flight. Farren Glory looked all set to collect a second Grade 1 inside a month but fell when leading two out in the new Formby Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree on Boxing Day. He remains an exciting prospect.

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