PUNCHESTOWN REPORT:AMID THE joyful scenes that surrounded Hurricane Fly's thrilling success in yesterday evening's Rabobank Champion Hurdle here, one on-looking face was filled with an understandable resignation.
The left arm which Ruby Walsh broke in a fall at Aintree a fortnight ago initially cost the champion jockey a Grand National ride. But the real price has come this week with Hurricane Fly’s devastating display the centrepiece of another remarkable exhibition of festival dominance by Willie Mullins.
Walsh has watched 10 Mullins-trained winners in the last four days – including three more last evening – a tally just a couple shy of last year’s record by the champion trainer. And in the absence of Mullins’s number one jockey, Paul Townend has stepped up to the plate with rare élan.
Certainly the 19-year-old’s ride on Hurricane Fly was an exhibition of cool confidence, disdaining any fears about the horse’s fitness after a long injury lay-off, before powering through the field to nail the defending champion, Solwhit, in the shadow of the post.
“Paul’s job was to settle the horse, then ride a ride, and he was very confident. There didn’t seem to be much pace and at half-way I thought he was too far behind,” Mullins admitted.
“Then he looked beaten at the last but his class got him home. He did one super bit of work last week, but I wondered if he’d done enough,” he added. “In a Champion Hurdle they would go a real pace and he would need to be fitter. We probably got away with it today.”
Not surprisingly, the idea that Hurricane Fly can improve on this prompted bookmakers to slash his price for next year’s Champion Hurdle to 5 to 1, a long-term prospect guaranteed to ease the short-term disappointment of any sidelined jockey.
Solwhit made a valiant attempt to record back-to-back victories and had two lengths in hand of the Mullins second string Thousand Stars. However, favourite Dunguib could manage only sixth on his first attempt out of novice class, racing far too keenly in the early stages before fading.
Mullins has performed other minor miracles this week, but producing Palace Merano for a 25 to 1 success in the earlier long distance handicap chase might be best classified in the major miracle category. His form was such that he paid over 45 to 1 on the Tote, but Palace Merano appeared to thrive on improved ground and overhauled Ameretto Son on the run-in under Davy Condon.
“There are no owners here so you can tell how much we were expecting this!” joked the champion trainer. “Maybe he’s just fed up running on soft and appreciates running on better ground at this stage of his career. We’ll continue with him – if I can find races long enough.”
Mullins brought up a three-timer with Arvika Ligeonniere, who scorched home in the two-mile novice hurdle with a conviction his trainer appeared to lack beforehand. “I didn’t dream of a performance like that over this trip,” he said. “But the better ground looks to have turned him inside out. That’s what he has been showing me at home.”
In the circumstances there seemed to be almost an inevitability about the way the Mullins runner Fionnegas led into the straight in the Grade One Cathal Ryan Memorial Novice Hurdle.
However, the 9 to 4 favourite Reve De Sivola, who had looked to be in trouble from some way out, rallied bravely under Wexford-born jockey Daryl Jacob to score for English trainer Nick Williams.
“You’re looking at the 2012 Gold Cup winner!” said Reve De Sivola’s owner Paul Duffy, who also owns the high-class Diamond Harry. “And Diamond Harry will win in 2011.”
Jessica Harrington’s task with Chasing Cars will be to keep finding the sort of ground he thrived on yesterday when making all the running to land the novice handicap chase.
“He has finally got his act together and he deserves that,” the Kildare trainer said. “We decided to go back to old-tactics and let him go on and he absolutely loves that ground.”
Harrington later completed a double when Auspicious Outlook scored in the concluding bumper under Pauline Ryan, while My Cool Lady made all the running in the valuable mares bumper to score under Andy Duff.
“Whatever she does in bumpers is a bonus,” said her trainer, Denise Foster. “She’s a brilliant jumper and I can’t wait to see her over a fence.”
DAY FOUR FIGURES
THE LADIES Day crowd of 28,664 was easily the biggest of the Punchestown festival week so far and saw a marginal increase of 72 on last year’s corresponding attendance.
Tote turnover was also up again for the fourth day running with a €1,130486 total (compared to last year’s €873,759), boosted by a €245,576 input from French PMU punters.
Bookmaker betting was down again, though, from last year’s €2,599,403 to €2,200,954.
