Racing

Ireland’s top jockeys busy in weekend action ahead of Cheltenham festival

Minella Cocooner in €100,000 Leinster National one of five rides for champion jockey Paul Townend prior to biggest week of the year

Paul Townend Townend is a heavy odds-on favourite to be crowned Cheltenham’s leading rider for a fourth time. Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho
Paul Townend Townend is a heavy odds-on favourite to be crowned Cheltenham’s leading rider for a fourth time. Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho
Brian O'Connor
Fri Mar 08 2024 - 19:00

Ireland’s top jockeys can’t be accused of playing it safe in advance of next week’s Cheltenham Festival and Paul Townend’s handful of weekend spins include a trio of rides over fences.

With the pick of Willie Mullins’s huge squad to look forward to, Townend is a heavy odds-on favourite to be crowned Cheltenham’s leading rider for a fourth time.

Already fourth in the all-time list of most successful festival riders with 28 victories in total, the reigning champion jockey has a mouth-watering book of rides to look forward to at National Hunt racing’s biggest meeting of the year.

They include the favourites for all three big championship prizes. Both State Man and El Fabilolo are odds-on for the Champion Hurdle and Champion Chase respectively while Galopin Des Champs also tops betting lists for Friday’s Gold Cup.

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Nevertheless, Townend will be busy at home this weekend.

A single ride in Saturday’s Beginners Chase at Gowran is topped by four more at Naas on Sunday, including on Minella Cocooner in the featured €100,000 Bar One Leinster National. Tactical Move is another mount over bigger obstacles in a four-runner Grade Three.

Jack Kennedy leads Townend by six in Ireland’s jockey’s championship (108-102) and is booked for three mounts at each of the weekend programmes.

Mark Walsh, joint-second favourite with Kennedy in some lists for the Cheltenham riders award, will be in action four times, including on Mirazur West for Mullins in Sunday’s other Grade Three. Between the three of them, the riders can boast 46 Cheltenham Festival winners.

Sean Flanagan has a single such success to his name, but it was a memorable one as the 80-1 Jeff Kidder sprang a shock in the 2021 Boodles Hurdle.

It will be a busy weekend for Flanagan too as he is in Sandown on Saturday to ride the sole Irish raider on the Betfair Imperial Cup, Minx Tiara.

Supreme Package in 2022 ended a lengthy gap in Irish success in the historic contest which went back to 2006 and Victram’s success for Ado McGuinness.

Minx Tiara is among the outsiders for the big handicap pot despite David O’Brien’s stalwart finding only Brucio too good on her last start at the Dublin Racing Festival.

Flanagan is also in action in Sunday’s Leinster National where he teams up with one of two Gavin Cromwell hopes.

Keith Donoghue is on Velvet Elvis but Flanagan will be going light to make the weight on Hartur D’arc in the same colours. Both Derek Kierans-owned runners won on their first start for Cromwell with Hartur D’arc’s success coming at Clonmel.

He is trying three miles for the first time on Sunday and comes up against some hardy handicappers such last year’s winner Espanito Bello and Diol Ker who won it in 2022.

Minella Cocooner is having a first handicap start too but must concede a lot of weight to Hartor D’arc on what looks set to be very testing conditions.

“Hartur D’arc won nicely on the last day in a beginners’ chase at Clonmel. He gets into the Leinster National on Sunday off a lovely light weight. I’m not really sure about the trip of Sunday’s race for him but if he stays, I think he’ll have a chance,” said Cromwell.

Sunday’s other meeting at Limerick has a Grade Three prize of its own in the Shannon Spray Novice Hurdle. Danny Mullins is on duty for the big Mullins hope, A Penny A Hundred, and this stamina test should be perfect for a mare that chased home Jade De Grugy last time.

Separately, Cheltenham’s Grade One Mares Hurdle looks all but certain to be Lossiemouth’s target on Tuesday. Owner Rich Ricci has poured cold water on hopes she could be switched late to take on stable companion State Man in the Champion Hurdle.

“The plan was always to run in the Mares’ Hurdle, keep one eye on the Champion in case it cut up, but the intention has always been to run in the Mares’ and hopefully if she’s good enough come back and have a real go at the boys next year,” said Ricci on Friday.

“I know a lot of people would be thinking about running her in the Champion Hurdle, but if you look at her best ratings and times, not one of them would have won a Champion Hurdle in the last 10 years. So, I think we’re doing the right thing.

“We’ll keep an eye on the Champion Hurdle in case it cuts up further. But I think Plan A is to run in the Mares’ Hurdle,” said the American.

In other news, 10 of the 12 jockeys who received five-day suspensions after a controversial race at Dundalk last week have appealed the penalties. The appeals will be heard on Wednesday week.

The Dundalk stewards acted after a two-mile amateur handicap won by Wrecking Ball Paul who established a clear early lead and was never pegged back.

Some of the country’s top amateurs were in the following pack, including Finny Maguire, John Gleeson and Harry Swan, and were among the dozen found to be in breach of the rule which states riders to “be seen to have been the subject of a genuine attempt to obtain from the horse timely, real and substantial efforts to achieve the best possible place.”

The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board confirmed on Friday that 10 riders, including Maguire, Gleeson, and Swan, have lodged appeals. The exceptions are PA Dunne and SP Queally.

Brian O'Connor

Brian O'Connor

Brian O'Connor is the racing correspondent of The Irish Times. He also writes the Tipping Point column