Our columnist with five key questions the Dublin Racing Festival will (hopefully) answer at the weekend.
1. Lossiemouth or Brighterdaysahead? (Or something else?)
The similarities between these two is uncanny. Both top-class mares, both seven years old, both March foals. The official handicapper can’t split them, they are both rated 159, and the market is finding it difficult to separate them in advance of Sunday’s Timeless Sash Windows Irish Champion Hurdle.
Just one length separated these two when they met in the December Hurdle at Leopardstown over Christmas, a result that was consistent with market expectations, but Brighterdaysahead was making her seasonal debut that day. Lossiemouth had already had a run. Wilie Mullins’ mare had danced in in the Morgiana Hurdle five weeks earlier.
The Brighterdaysahead preamble to the December Hurdle was well told. Initially set to embark on her chasing career this term, a small setback delayed her chasing debut, then delayed it some more. Then Gordon Elliott and Gigginstown House Stud decided to remain over hurdles this term, supplement her for the December Hurdle. No point in blowing your status as a novice chaser half-way through the season. There’s still lots of time for chasing.
Gordon Elliott said before the December Hurdle that she would come on for the run, and he said at his media day last Monday that she had. Remember, she only has a length to find.
In the December Hurdle, Brighterdaysahead narrowed the gap to Lossiemouth to three parts of a length half-way up the run-in. She didn’t get any closer and, actually, Lossiemouth pulled away again on the run to the line. Perhaps Lossiemouth found more when she sensed that her rival was closing. Perhaps she had more left to give. Or perhaps lack of a recent run told with Brighterdaysahead. Perhaps she will be able to find more than the length by which she was beaten now, with race fitness on her side.
Of course, it could have been a little bit of both.
Willie Mullins could run Anzadam too in Saturday’s race, and El Fabiolo and Ballyburn and Poniros, or some combination thereof. Gordon Elliott could run Casheldale Lad.
2. Can Galopin Des Champs bounce back?
There was a mild air of incredulity about the place when Galopin Des Champs passed the post in third place behind Affordale Fury in the Savills Chase at Christmas. When Galopin Des Champs races at Leopardstown, when he races over fences there, he just wins.
This was new.
In mitigation, it was his first run of the season, and he never wins on his first run of the season. Not these days. Third in the John Durkan Chase on his seasonal return in 2023, he bounced on and won the Savills Chase next time, then won the Irish Gold Cup. Third in the John Durkan Chase again on his debut in 2024, he repeated the feat in the Savills Chase, and he won the Irish Gold Cup again.
No John Durkan Chase for Willie Mullins’ horse this time, a slight setback meant that he had to miss it so, when he ran in the Savills Chase this season, he was racing for the first time since he won the Punchestown Gold Cup in April.
We know that time waits for no man and for no horse, and Galopin Des Champs is 10 years old now, and only one horse aged older than nine (Carlingford Lough) has won the Irish Gold Cup since Beef Or Salmon won it as an 11-year-old in 2007. But Galopin Des Champs is no ordinary 10-year-old, and the performance that he put up in winning the Punchestown Gold Cup in April told you that he retained at least most of his ability and undoubtedly all his enthusiasm for racing.
We know that he improves from his first run of the season to his second and, if the magnitude of his improvement this season is up there with the magnitude of his improvement in each of the last two seasons, then he is the one they have to beat again. He has won the last three renewals of the Irish Gold Cup. No horse has ever won four in a row.
3. Has Narciso Has progressed to beyond Mange Tout?
The market thinks that Narciso Has has.
When these two met in the Grade 3 juveniles’ hurdle at the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle meeting at Fairyhouse at the end of November, Mange Tout came out on top. Narciso Has was having his first run for Willie Mullins and JP McManus, his first run since he won on his racecourse debut at Auteuil in April. As expected, he showed the benefit of that run when he ran out an impressive winner of the Grade 2 juveniles’ hurdle at the Leopardstown Christmas Festival.
Mange Tout had the benefit if a run this season before Fairyhouse, but she won well at Fairyhouse, she beat Narciso Has by almost three lengths, and she was value for all that. She didn’t run at Christmas, Gordon Elliott figured that she had had three runs over hurdles, she didn’t need to run again, but you can be sure that she will be primed for the Grade 1 Gannon’s City Recovery and Recycling Services Spring Juvenile Hurdle on Saturday.
There may not be much between these two again on Saturday, and there probably shouldn't be as much between them in the market as there is.
4. Will it be the Mullins and Elliott show?
The Mullins/Elliott duel is not just Lossiemouth v Brighterdaysahead and Narciso Has v Mange Tout, but there are pockets of the Mullins/Elliott duel interspersed throughout the whole weekend.
Historically, it is a meeting at which Willie Mullins is dominant. At last year’s Dublin Racing Festival, the champion trainer was responsible for seven of the 15 winners, he won six of the Grade 1 races and one Grade 2. In 2024, he won nine of the 15 races, including all the Grade 1s.
There is a sense that the Willie Mullins team is building up to this weekend again. Patrick Mullins has said things of late like boot-camp and happy with-where-we-have-them-now, and that is obviously ominous.
That said, Gordon Elliott had an fantastic Christmas Festival. He trained 18 winners over the course of the four days, and he won three Grade 1 races. He is over €600,000 ahead of Willie Mullins in the 2025/26 trainers’ championship, and you can be sure that he is happy with where he has his team now this week too in the lead up to the weekend.
5. Or will others make their respective marks?
Solness was brilliant last year. The market was guilty of not fully believing what it saw at last season’s Christmas Festival, when Solness got out in front and wasn’t caught – in fairness, it was foggy – so he had to go and do it again at the Dublin Racing Festival.
This season, it was as-you-were at the Christmas Festival, Solness out in front, wide and swinging away and seeing off all-comers. It’s onto the Dublin Racing Festival again, as Joseph O’Brien’s horse bids to complete the double-double.
Marine Nationale finished third behind Solness at the Christmas Festival last season, and he finished second behind him at last year’s Dublin Racing Festival before going to Cheltenham and blitzing his rivals in the Champion Chase. Barry Connell’s horse has just a half a length to find with Solness on their running at Christmas, and they make him clear favourite for Sunday’s race, even if the ground may be softer than ideal.
It's not only about Solness for Joseph O’Brien mind you. Talk The Talk looked set for victory in the Grade 1 Future Champions Novice Hurdle at the Christmas Festival when he over-jumped at the final flight and came down, and it’s not surprising that he has been put in as favourite for the Grade 1 Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle on Sunday.
Kim Roque could go for the Leopardstown Handicap Chase, while Galileo Dame and Shoda and Carried With Love could all run in the Paddy and Maureen Mullins Mares’ Handicap Hurdle. Pertemps qualifier winner Duke Silver could go in the three-mile handicap hurdle on Saturday, and Fred Winter Hurdle winner (and Irish Cesarewitch winner) Puturhandstogether could go in the two-mile handicap hurdle on Sunday.
With just six different trainers recording winners at the Dublin Racing Festival last year, there is a good spread of trainers with real contenders over the course of the weekend this year.
Declan Queally bagged his first Grade 1 win when I’ll Sort That won the Ballymore Hurdle at Naas three weeks ago, and he could bid for another in the Nathaniel Lacy Novices’ Hurdle on Saturday with Tackletommywoowoo, who was impressive in beating subsequent winner Good Girl Kathleen in a listed novices’ hurdle at Cork in early November.
Emmet Mullins won the Timeless Sash Windows Handicap Hurdle last year with McLaurey, and he sent out Vischio to win the Paddy and Maureen Mullins Mares’ Handicap Hurdle last year. His runners this time around include Dippedinmoonlight in the Race And Stay at Leopardstown Handicap Hurdle on the Saturday.
Eddie and Patrick Harty went close in the Grade 1 Racing Post Chase at Christmas with Irish Panther, who went down by just a half a length to Romeo Coolio, and they could have another crack at him and Kargese and Kopek Des Bordes in what will be a fascinating Goffs Irish Arkle if they all stand their ground.
Gavin Cromwell had three winners at last year’s Dublin Racing Festival, and lots of eyes will obviously be on Inothewayurthinkin in the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup on Saturday. The Meath trainer will have plenty of other chances over the course of the weekend, including with Ballysax Hank and Addragoole and Araminta, while Only By Night would be a really interesting contender for the Paddy and Maureen Mullins Mares’ Handicap Hurdle, racing off a hurdles rating of 125, 23lb lower than her chase mark.
An Peann Dearg won the Barberstown Castle Handicap Chase last year, and Paul Nolan’s horse could bid for a repeat this weekend. The trainer has his horses in tremendous form, as evidenced by a double at Doncaster on Saturday, and An Peann Dearg is back down to a mark of 128 now, just 6lb higher than the mark off which he won the race last year.
Affordale Fury is obviously Noel Meade’s headline horse for the weekend but, victorious last year in the Grade 2 bumper with Colcannon, he could also be represented by Money Dancer and Blue Mosque in the Paddy and Maureen Mullins Mares’ Handicap Hurdle, and by Blake in the Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle. Martin Brassil, who will be represented by Fastorslow in the Irish Gold Cup, could field the favourite for the gelding's bumper this year with It’s Only A Game.
The Ted Walsh-trained Buachaillbocht ran well in the Paddy Power Chase over Christmas and he could be a strong contender in the Leopardstown Chase on Sunday over a slightly shorter trip, while the Charles Byrnes-trainer I Started A Joke was impressive in winning his maiden at Punchestown three weeks ago, and he could go into the two-mile handicap hurdle with a nice racing weight.
The Eric McNamara-trained County Final could be a player in the Race And Stay at Leopardstown Handicap Hurdle on Saturday over three miles, while Tom Cooper’s mare Celestial Tune, winner of the mares’ bumper at Cheltenham’s November meeting, has deservedly been put in as favourite for the Grade 2 mares’ bumper. She could face competition from the Martin Hassett-trained Cork winner Moonverrin and the Sonny Carey-trained Brosna Shine, an impressive winner of a four-year-old fillies’ bumper at Fairyhouse last month.
It’s great that Rebecca Curtis is set to take Haiti Couleurs over across the Irish Sea for the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup. The last time she took her stable star to Ireland, she was over for the Irish Grand National, and look how that one turned out. Hopefully others will make the cross-channel journey too. Fergal O’Brien’s mare Siog Geal could have real say in the Paddy and Maureen Mullins Mares’ Handicap Hurdle too.
For more of Donn's writing visit www.donnmcclean.com.
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