Facile Vega brings Christmas stardust to Leopardstown

Facile Vega brings stardust quality to Leopardstown’s day-two Christmas action although there’s quantity too in the holiday festival’s most lucrative prize.

The €200,000 Paddy Power Chase is a 28-runner brainteaser handicap sure to have many punters chasing big-odds value.

Willie Mullins is mob-handed in it with eight runners, including one for JP McManus who is in pursuit of a remarkable 10th success in the race.

Son of Quevega

In contrast, Facile Vega’s appearance in the Grade One Future Champions Novice Hurdle presents as more coronation than contest.

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The unbeaten son of the Cheltenham festival record-holder Quevega is at all but unbackable odds to win his second start over flights en route to what shapes as becoming a stellar career.

Mullins has already firmly nailed his colours to the Facile Vega mast, declaring him the most exciting prospect he’s had in years.

It’s a billing reflected in a Grade One field containing another trio of Mullins runners as well as just a single rival each from Gordon Elliott and Gavin Cromwell.

In competitive terms it’s hardly ideal but Facile Vega’s grip on the public imagination is already such that it will hardly matter much; so long, that is, as he lives up to the hoopla and wins impressively.

JP McManus’s runners will be to the fore of considerations ahead of the big pot which takes place just 10 minutes after the big cross-channel handicap, Chepstow’s Coral Welsh Grand National.

Normally mob-handed, McManus is down to a “mere” handful of Paddy Power runners this time.

One of them, top-weight Ciel De Neige, is among the Mullins octet and the famous green and gold colours will be on three other hopefuls among the top half dozen in the weights.

The big-race sponsor is hardly alone though in reckoning the McManus No 1 hope is Donkey Years towards the other end of the ratings.

Mark Walsh takes the mount on the Eric McNamara-trained horse who ran third to The Big Dog in October’s Munster National.

Ain’t That A Shame was just beaten in that race and is another that hasn’t been missed either by the ante-post odds setters.

Whether the going on Leopardstown’s steeplechase track will be perfect for either is questionable although the fancied Panda Boy could love it.

So too might Pádraig Roche’s diminutive stalwart Walking On Glass who may go well at a big price.

Mullins’s strength in depth in the big handicap reflects his influence throughout day two at Leopardstown.

Chacun Pour Soi was beaten by no less than A Plus Tard in the 2019 Rewards Club Chase but is unbeaten in four starts over the course and distance since then.

His stable companions Blue Lord and Gentleman de Mee have an age edge but a much superior official rating of 172 suggests Chacun Pour Soi still has the advantage that counts in the first Grade One of the day.

Tekao should strip sharper for his Irish debut third behind Comfort Zone in the opener while it’s noteworthy that Winter Fog’s first start for Mullins has him dropped significantly in trip for a handicap.

Limerick’s Grade Two highlight on Tuesday is minus a Mullins runner which should only help Oliver McKiernan’s hopes of success with Kalanisi Star.

Winner of a bumper on heavy ground at Gowran last season, Philip Enright’s mount scored over flights there last month at two miles.

That was an impressive display by the former point-to-point winner who could step up again now he’s pushed right out in trip for a race won in the past by stars such as Faugheen and Penhill.

Kudasheva was an expensive purchase from point-to-points and got her hurdles career off to a promising start at Navan last month.

Time could prove that bumping into Grangeclare West in a maiden was a mountain to climb on that occasion. The company looks a lot less hot for Tuesday’s mares maiden hurdle.

The form of Tuesday’s two major handicaps is intertwined as The Big Dog tops the weights for the final “National” of 2022.

What chance Regina Dracones?

Peter Fahey’s runner has unfinished business with the Chepstow highlight, having had to be pulled up in the race a year ago as a bad mistake meant his rider lost the reins and an iron.

He returns to Wales on the back of two victories in the Munster National and the Troytown but consequently is faced with humping top weight around 3¾ miles.

Notre Pere was a first Irish-trained winner in 2008 while Raz De Maree also took the 2017 renewal.

Another Irish raider this time is Tom Gibney’s Regina Dracones, fifth to Punitive at Fairyhouse earlier this month. Gibney has engaged top English rider Harry Cobden for the ride.

Earlier on the Chepstow card, Joseph O’Brien’s Comfort Zone lines up for the Grade Two Finale Hurdle.