No trainer has dominated the John Durkan Memorial Chase to the degree that Willie Mullins has dominated it of late.
When Min won the Punchestown feature through the fog last year for the third time, under his third different rider, it brought up a seventh win in the race for the champion trainer, which equalled Jim Dreaper's record. Also, six of the Mullins seven have been in the last eight years, and five have been in the last six, after a first with Florida Pearl in 2001.
The Mullins theme continues today (click for full trainer column). Ten runners – there haven’t been as many since The Listener beat nine rivals in 2007 – and seven of them are trained by the perennial champ. And yet, Envoi Allen is the headline act.
The Cheveley Park Stud’s horse makes headlines whenever he races and wherever he goes. Winner of his only point-to-point, he was four for four in bumpers, four for four over hurdles, and three for three in novice chases last season for Gordon Elliott before he fell as the long odds-on favourite in the Marsh Chase at Cheltenham in March.
Pulled up at Punchestown in April when there were excuses, he got back on track on his debut this term, when he ran out an impressive winner of a Grade 2 contest at Down Royal in October (replay below).
You can understand why Henry de Bromhead’s horse is favourite for today’s race, he is a hugely talented horse, a quintuple Grade 1 winner, who has the potential to go even higher, but he is short, and this will be a thorough test for him. It is a deep, deep race and, from a betting perspective, the value may lie beyond him.
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You can argue that Fakir D’Oudairies should be closer to Envoi Allen in the betting than he is. Officially rated 4lb superior to the favourite, Joseph O’Brien's horse has had plenty of racing, but he is still only six, and he is probably still progressing. Winner of the Drinmore Chase as a novice, and second in the Arkle, he kept the best of company last year, and he improved as the season progressed.
He was beaten by 12 lengths by Allaho in the Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham in March, but he stepped up on that when he went to Aintree the following month and danced in in the Melling Chase.
JP McManus' horse looked very good on his debut this season too, when he ran out an easy winner of the Grade 2 Clonmel Oil Chase at Clonmel. He will face an altogether tougher test today, but he beat two good horses at Clonmel in Royal Rendezvous and Easy Game, two 161-rated horses, both of whom had a race-fitness edge on him.
He should come on for that run and, as a six-year-old, he still has scope to progress further.
That said, the value of today’s race may be Asterion Forlonge. Willie Mullins’ horse was a top class novice hurdler. He won the Grade 1 Chanelle Pharma Novice Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival in February 2020, and he was sent off as favourite for Shishkin’s Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham the following month, despite the fact that it was generally accepted that he was better going right than going left.
It took a while for his chasing career to gather momentum last season, but he ran well in the Marsh Chase at Cheltenham in March to finish third behind Chantry House and Fusil Raffles, after Envoi Allen’s departure, and he rounded off the season by winning at the Punchestown Festival.
It was just a novices’ handicap chase that he won there, but it is traditionally a high-class novices’ handicap chase, it was won in 2018 by subsequent multiple Grade 1 winner Kemboy, and Asterion Forlonge won it doing handsprings off a mark of 152 and giving 10lb and more to all his rivals.
He is at his best going right-handed, he goes well fresh – he won his only point-to-point and he is two for two on his seasonal debut under Rules – this intermediate trip is probably his optimum, and he goes well at Punchestown.
His record there reads 1F1. Also, his rider Bryan Cooper is riding out of his skin these days.
Allaho is obviously a big player, a repeat of his Ryanair Chase run would surely suffice, but he is short, he has never won on his seasonal debut, he is zero for three at Punchestown, and in the back of your mind is the fact that he disappointed in the fog in this race last year.
It will be good to see the Grand National winner Minella Times back on the racecourse, and Tornado Flyer could run well at a big price, as he did in the race last year, when he finished second to his stable companion Min but, at 8/1, Asterion Forlonge could be the value.
It will also be good to see Energumene back in the Grade 2 Kerry Group Hilly Way Chase at Cork. Willie Mullins’ horse was four for four over fences last season, he is obviously a hugely exciting prospect for the season ahead, and he should be tested today by Notebook, a dual Grade 1 winner as a novice, who looked good in winning the Fortria Chase at Navan on his debut this season.
In the Grade 2 O’Flynn Group Irish EBF Mares Novice Chase 35 minutes earlier, Magic Daze should probably be closer to Concertista in the betting than she is. Concertista is a high-class hurdler, she won the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at the 2020 Cheltenham Festival, and she was only just beaten in the Mares’ Hurdle there last March. She is rated 18lb superior to Magic Daze over hurdles, so you can understand why she has been put in ahead of her for today’s race.
But Magic Daze was a progressive novice hurdler last season, and she did really well to finish second in the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham in March, having raced prominently and keenly for most of the way.
Also, Henry de Bromhead’s mare has had two runs over fences already this season. She was beaten on her chasing bow at Galway in October, when the two-and-a-quarter-mile trip on the soft ground and up Galway’s unforgiving hill found her out on her first run since April.
But she was very good in winning her beginners’ chase last time. Sent to the front from flagfall by Darragh O’Keeffe, her jumping was very good, she had her rivals stretched out from early, and she had the race in the bag from the top of the home straight.
That was over today’s course and distance, on similar ground to today’s, and there is every chance that her aggressive style of racing and her fluent jumping will be too much for her rivals again.
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