Matheson Hurdle report: Sharjah completes hat-trick

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Patrick Mullins arrived with a double handful aboard the seven-year-old as Aspire Tower (6/1) led them over the last.

He fought hard on the flat too but the winner went past him and kept on well to score by two lengths.

Petit Mouchoir (28/1) finished well to take third from the weakening and disappointing favourite Saint Roi, while Abacadabras also failed to fire.

Betfair and Paddy Power halved the winner in price to 8/1 for the Unibet Champion Hurdle and pushed Saint Roi out to 10/1 from 9/2.

Sky Bet make Sharjah 6/1 from 20/1, Aspire Tower 9/1 from 16/1 and eased Saint Roi to10/1 from 5/1, with Abacadabras the same price from 11/2.

“He’s some horse and he likes this track. Patrick loves riding him, and the horse responds to him,” said Willie Mullins.

“It can be very hard to ride a horse like that, the way he rides him, but he has great confidence in him. For a guy his size and weight, he has huge commitment. He does a lot of other work at home, running the yard as assistant trainer. He might be taking my job shortly!

“I’d imagine Sharjah will come back here for the Irish Champion Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival. He has a little bit of class about him. He was second last year in the Champion Hurdle, and might have been a little far back then.

“Saldier ran a great race on his comeback. I thought Saint Roi would finish closer – but Mark said he went for his race too early and he’d like to have sat longer.”

Patrick Mullins said: “I just love riding him. He’s so straightforward. It’s easy to ride him like that when you know the turn of foot he has.

“He gives you as much as he can on the bridle, but he is tough off it as well. He just missed the last – but for that, we might have won a shade easier.

“Dave Porter, who looks after him, was trotting him up this morning, checking him, and said he was like Jackie Chan, he was in great form.

“He was keen today, which he usually isn’t. He stayed in for the summer and didn’t get much of a break, but it hasn’t done him any harm. I thought we went a strong gallop there but then slowed up turning out of the back.

“My plan was to track Saint Roi because I thought he had plenty of speed and I knew if they slowed up I had plenty of speed too

“Turning in I was thinking ‘we’re not getting to Aspire Tower’ so I had to commit a little earlier than I wanted to. A strong-run two miles suits him, because they are coming back at him, and a slow-run two miles suits him as he has such speed. He’s a wonderful horse to ride in these races.

“He doesn’t have huge scope at his hurdles, but he’s very clever. You have to leave him alone, and he’s good at getting in tight.

“He has the odd off day, and that’s maybe why he gets forgotten about sometimes because he’s not hugely consistent.

“On his day he’s as good as any of them. Last year in the Champion Hurdle there was a big field, and we didn’t go a huge gallop.

“In a normal year with a smaller field that might put me four or five lengths closer for nothing. Would that make me win the race? You’d have to believe that.”

On riding another Grade One winner as an amateur, Mullins added: “I just like to justify my place riding those horses, obviously being the son of the boss and being an amateur.

“It’s great today, but I was raging over Melon (third in the Savills) yesterday. I felt that was one I might have left behind me, but I suppose you can’t win them all. I wish I had rolled the dice at the second last rather than playing it safe.”