Walsh-Mullins team stay in limelight

PUNCHESTOWN:SOLWHIT MIGHT have edged out Punjabi in a thrilling finish to the Day Four Punchestown feature, but another three-timer for the all-dominant Ruby Walsh-Willie Mullins team meant nothing was going to edge them out of the festival limelight.

Central to the near 44 to 1 three-timer was another exceptional Grade One-winning display by Mikael d’Haguenet, who beat his stable companion Cousin Vinny by four lengths in the Land Rover Champion Novice Hurdle.

Walsh’s pre-race concern about Cousin Vinny was very real, having ridden that horse in some exceptional work beforehand, but the Cheltenham winner Mikael d’Haguenet maintained his six-out-of-six record since joining Mullins with a display that propelled him to 4 to 1 favouritism for next year’s RSA Chase.

“They will both go chasing next year. If they don’t take to it, they can always go back hurdling,” said Mullins. “Vinny had been working out of his skin for the last week and I’m delighted he’s back. He’s probably run the race of his life and still finished second. That’s how good Mikael is.

“He ran once over fences in France, which is one of the main reasons I bought him. I think I will put Mikael away now and look forward to next season,” he added.

Earlier, Equus Maximus had overhauled Tranquil Sea to pick up the Betfair Novice Handicap Chase, while Ballytrim proved an unlikely winner of the long-distance handicap chase.

“Ruby felt he was the first one beaten. He was never going anywhere, but just stayed on and ground it out,” Mullins reported, before nominating both horses as possible contenders for the Irish Grand National next year.

With Mullins now on 11 winners for the week, and Walsh on nine, the only surprise for many in the festival crowd was that Quevega, a 2 to 1 joint favourite with Solwhit for the Rabobank Champion Hurdle, didn’t win too. Instead, the mare had to settle for third as Solwhit and Punjabi fought an epic finish that settles the winner’s target for next season.

“The Champion Hurdle will be the main aim,” confirmed trainer Charles Byrnes. “I was a bit worried when Davy (Russell) dropped back a bit but happy that he had something to aim at.”

The closeness of yesterday’s finish was also reflected in bookmaker reaction, with some firms cutting the winner and Punjabi to 10 to 1 for the 2010 Champion Hurdle.

Copper Bleu – declared in error for the Grade One novice hurdle due to a HRI mistake on Thursday – found the company of the day’s other novice hurdle much more suitable. But the English raider was fortunate that Zaarito took a crashing fall at the last when challenging. Champion amateur Patrick Mullins completed another red-letter day for the Mullins family when Blazing Tempo became his 50th winner of the season in the fillies bumper.

Yesterday evening’s 28,592 crowd was by far the largest of the Punchestown festival so far but was still almost 1,600 down on the corresponding day last year. A Tote return of €873,759 dropped by over €300,000 on 2008 while bookmaker turnover slid by €744,000 to almost €2.6 million.