Exciting Douvan ready to return to action in Cork

Less than nine months after the Derby winner Harzand began his Classic campaign in style at Cork, the track is set to host the return to action on Sunday of National Hunt racing’s most exciting star Douvan.

Back in March anyone predicting not one but two Classic winners would win nondescript maidens on a Cork card could claim a third eye never mind second sight.

However an apparently run-of-the- mill programme featuring Harzand and the subsequent Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Jet Setting has ultimately proved a landmark day for the Mallow course.

But it is anticipation rather than hindsight which will pull the crowds from the cradle of National Hunt racing in North Cork towards the Grade Two Kerry Group Hilly Way Chase.

Unbeaten in ten starts for Willie Mullins, Douvan was imperious in half a dozen starts over fences last season, generating a sparkling rating for a novice of 169 in the process and leaving every impression even better is to come.

If ‘bigging-up’ potential is almost invariably a quick route to penury there is consolation in how even hardened professionals find themselves caught up in the excitement surrounding Douvan too.

Modern benchmark

Even Tony McCoy has reached for the ultimate modern benchmark comparison with Kauto Star.

“He has the talent to win over two miles and three miles and could be even better over the longer trip,” McCoy said recently.

“Brilliant champions like Kauto Star and Desert Orchid are capable of doing that: exceptional horses can win over any distance. Douvan could be exceptional.”

Such billing strikes to the heart of what will draw all eyes to Douvan at 2.15 on Sunday even though he will be at almost unbackable odds and won't even have Ruby Walsh on his back.

The champion jockey instead goes to Punchestown where Djakadam will defend his Grade One John Durkan Chase crown in the same Rich Ricci colours, leaving Paul Townend to ride Douvan for the third time.

Of course Walsh is best placed of all in terms of comparisons to Kauto Star having ridden that great horse to win top-flight prizes from two miles to three and a quarter over half a dozen years.

It is all but asking the impossible of Douvan to ultimately replicate such a CV. That won’t stop plenty watching Sunday’s race with one eye firmly on the future however.

Already as short as 4-7 favourite for the Champion Chase it is odds of as low as 4-1 for the King George at Kempton in just over a fortnight which reinforces why such excitement surrounds Douvan.

Unbeaten and never seriously pressed up to now, there remain no disillusioning restrictions in terms of what this horse might be, to the extent it might even be argued that sticking to the two mile route this season might represent a victory for discretion over valour.

When every horse is just a step away from injury, might McCoy be right about distance improving Douvan, making now the time to aim for the Gold Cup stars?

Of course it’s easy to be brave with someone else’s horse and as flint-eyed professionals, Mullins and Walsh must roll their eyes at such presumption. But it’s a cheap price to pay in order to prepare a horse for which racing’s sky really does look the limit.

It is such excitement which has eluded Djakadam throughout an otherwise entirely admirable career which has seen him finish runner-up in the last two Gold Cups.

Destined it seems to be regularly overshadowed by some of his stable companions, Djakadam could also be reduced in this Durkan billing to being part of a Willie Mullins trio taking on a Gigginstown pair with all the resonance such a match-up contains this season.

In his own terms, though, ground conditions might not be soft enough at this trip to allow Djakadam get the better of the free-jumping Sub Lieutenant.