REPORT FROM LEOPARDSTOWN:GOLDEN SILVER carried the famous Florida Pearl colours to an impressive success in yesterday's Grade One feature at Leopardstown and indicated in the process how champion trainer Willie Mullins is coming back to form with a vengeance.
Mullins endured a worrying number of weeks with a low-grade virus interrupting the usual tide of winners from his Co Carlow yard. But Golden Silver looked the epitome of health when defeating Tranquil Sea in the Paddy Power Dial-A-Bet Chase.
Paul Townend powered the Archie O’Leary-owned horse clear on the run-in to earn quotes of as low as 10 to 1 for the Champion Chase at Cheltenham.
“I always thought he needed soft ground but Paul said he was very good on that and he will definitely get an entry for the Champion. He is a horse that is improving all the time and Paul is riding him with confidence,” Mullins said afterwards.
“The way Secant Star ran in the first, and now with this fella, it looks like we are coming back to form,” he added.
Secant Star looked a certain winner on the run to the last in the opening maiden hurdle only to take a crashing fall that Ruby Walsh blamed on a shadow at the take-off side caused by the low-lying sun.
Earlier in the race there was carnage at the third flight when Big Game Hunter fell and brought down four others, including Andrew Leigh’s mount Morning Time. Leigh picked up soft tissue injuries and was stood down for a minimum of three days.
The race title may be the Paddy Power Future Champions Novice Hurdle but after Hollo Ladies sprang a 25 to 1 shock in yesterday’s Grade One event, bookmakers were unanimous in believing that the real future champion was taking it easy at home.
Dunguib was cut to as low as evens favourite for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham in March as nothing else threatened to infringe on his place as the central figure of this season’s novice crop.
Mind you his old rivals Some Present and Sweeps Hill made no impression on yesterday’s race as Saludos dominated from the front and only Hollo Ladies was able to come out of the pack and cut him down.
Hollo Lodies had won his maiden just nine days previously and his SP yesterday is now the same as Hills are offering about his Cheltenham chances against Dunguib. He could tackle the potential superstar before that, however, back at Leopardstown in February for the Deloitte.
“I suppose he deserved to be 25 to 1 but I knew if it turned into a dogfight he would be hard enough to beat. He just keeps finding,” Meade said.
The Saludos team suspected the absence of a hurdle in the straight could have cost them but Meade added: “Our horse is very tough and the lack of a hurdle was disadvantage to us too. He had a hard race there so we might bring him back for the Deloitte.”
Hollo Ladies’s jockey Davy Condon picked up a two-day ban for his use of the whip in this race while amateur Roger Quinlan also got two days for the whip after winning the bumper with On His Own. Runner-up Patrick Mullins, on Some Target, got a day for his use of the stick.
Charlie Swan described Prince Of Fire as the best horse he has trained after the four-year-old, who is owned by Swan’s father-in-law, Timmy Hyde, made all in the maiden hurdle to beat Grey Soldier.
“I know you can’t tell much from a maiden hurdle but he has a lot of gears and he will be very good.
“He’s a real chaser and he’s the best horse I’ve trained by a long way,” the former champion jockey said.
Prince Of Fire’s jockey, David Casey, completed a double with similar all-the-way tactics on board Bobsthewizard in the three-mile handicap hurdle, eventually holding off Conclave by just under two lengths.
Trainer Francis Flood had a double at Down Royal as well and said: “The few lengths he got at the start helped him. He is tough, stays well and we’ll try and find another handicap like this for him.”
