Mullins among the prizes once again

THE Dublin Racing Festival, that was due to take place at Leopardstown on January 31 and February 1, nearly didn’t happen this year due to over six inches of rain falling on the course in the week leading up. Photos prior showed much of the track completely flooded, which had racegoers and punters anxious to know if the meeting would go ahead or not. Eventually it was decided to hold over Saturday’s fixtures to the Monday (St Brigid’s Day) with Sunday thankfully able to go ahead as planned.

There were eight Grade One contests over the two days with champion trainer Willie Mullins (above) taking no less than five of the major prizes back to Closutton. His success in these races came as a surprise to absolutely no one, even if a couple were achieved by apparent second—or third—string horses such is the stable’s strength in depth these days.

Sunday saw Kaid d’Authie (5/1) take the Dr PJ Moriarty Novice Chase (2m 5 1/2f) under Mark Walsh, beating his heavily backed stablemate Final Demand (30/100) in third.

This was to prove leg one of a successful day for the JP McManus/Willie Mullins/Mark Walsh combination as they teamed up again later in the day to capture the Dublin Chase (2m 1f) with the talented, but fragile Majborough (2/1), by an impressive 19 lengths,

This was Majborough’s most notable performance to date, with both jockey and trainer full of praise afterwards.

“That was the real Majborough today,” the former stated, while ‘poetry in motion,’ was the view of the latter. Next up would appear to be a tilt at the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham, for which he is now quoted as 13/8 favourite. It will take an extremely good one to beat him if he turns up in the same form.

Monday’s big race came in the form of the Irish Gold Cup (3m 1/2f) with Fact To File (5/1) taking the honours (once again) for team McManus/Mullins/Walsh by five lengths. Remarkably horses from the Mullins’ yard filled out the first three places, Gaelic Warrior took second spot with two-time Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs back in third. All three horses now take up prominent positions in the equivalent Cheltenham market and all would have live chances should they line up you’d feel.

Fact To File has been installed as the 4/1 favourite despite the fact he currently doesn’t have an entry in the race and would have to be supplemented to take his chance. Should they choose to go down this route you would have to think confidence was high, and that could be noteworthy.

Elsewhere, the exciting prospect Romeo Coolio (4/9) extended his unbeaten record, but only just, to four out of four in the Irish Arkle under Jack Kennedy for trainer Gordon Elliot. This was the second Grade One victory of the weekend for Kennedy and the County Meath handler following the success of Brighterdaysahead (11/4) in the Irish Champion Hurdle.

Attention now turns to the Cheltenham Festival (March 10-13), with the picture regarding who goes where and who doesn’t becoming slightly clearer in recent weeks. There are still plenty of questions and sub-plots however, trying to figure them out prior to the tapes going up on day one is half the fun. Regardless, this year should be another fruitful excursion across the Irish Sea for Irish trained horses, let’s hope so anyway.