Fairyhouse: Willie Mullins hat-trick bodes well for 2016

It isn’t precisely winter yet but Fairyhouse’s

Winter Festival

looked a sign of what’s to come as top trainers

Willie Mullins

and

Gordon Elliott

dominated a triple-Grade 1 card which saw Michael O’Leary’s Gigginstown Stud claim a fourth Bar One Drinmore Chase in five years with the hugely impressive No More Heroes.

In the circumstances, that the €8,500 purchase Rashaan was able to maintain his unbeaten record for little-known trainer Colin Kidd with a scintillating Grade 3 victory in the Juvenile Hurdle appeared even more notable.

Unlike the Mullins and Elliott behemoths, Kidd is in charge of just a handful of horses at his Co Carlow yard and not unreasonably is determined to enjoy a cheap purchase transformed by jumping who is now as low as 12-1 for Triumph Hurdle glory at the Holy Grail in Cheltenham next March.

Top juvenile hurdler

Kidd picked up the Aga Khan-bred cast-off out of Michael Halford’s yard last February and after wins at Listowel and Roscommon Rashaan looked to progress again when sprinting clear of the odds-on Missy Tata.

“At this stage he looks the top Irish juvenile hurdler and is a very cheap horse now,” said Kidd whose confidence in the previously undistinguished flat performer has been vindicated in style.

“Victor Treacy [part-owner] has been very good to me, and he’s been waiting a long time for a good horse. There have been a number of inquiries but no concrete offer, and in fairness to Victor he doesn’t want to sell,” he said.

Given the sums floating around, the Rashaan team may have their resolution tested again with some very concrete offers indeed. But the first major National Hunt fixture of the season revealed again how rare such feelgood “little guy” stories are at this level.

Imperious victory

De Benno landed a handicap hurdle on the card but Arctic Fire’s imperious Hatton’s Grace victory was the centre-piece of a Mullins hat-trick that also included a Royal Bond Novice Hurdle 1-2 with Long Dog and Bachasson.

Both of the trainer’s Grade 1 winners were odds-on and although a temperature ruled out his Drinmore hope, Outlander, the Gigginstown team still landed the festival feature with Elliott’s No More Heroes.

Suggestions that Mullins would inevitably pull away from his main rival in the championship table once ground conditions turned soft certainly haven’t occurred yet and Elliott now has a 5-1 RSA favourite on his hands to look forward to.

“Over hurdles he spent a lot of time in the air, and he’s always looked like chasing would be his game. I’d say the longer he goes the better he’ll be, and I’d imagine he’ll go over three miles at Christmas,” he said.

Leopardstown’s Fort Leney Chase over Christmas could be next for No More Heroes but Elliott didn’t rule out the novice accompanying his stable companion Don Cossack to Kempton on St Stephen’s Day, taking in the Grade 1 Feltham Novice Chase instead.

Arctic Fire boasted a stand-out rating in the Hatton’s Grace and duly took advantage of a gilt-edged opportunity for a first top-flight success.

The horse who spent last season chasing home stable companions Faugheen and Hurricane Fly travelled all over his rivals from some way out and is now as low as 8-1 to go one better than last March in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.

“The ratings tell the story and he was entitled to win. He took a keen hold but has always been that way and I’d imagine he will stay at home over two miles at Christmas,” said Mullins.

Long Dog had a neck in hand of Bachasson at the end of the Royal Bond but with bookmakers making both 12-1 for Cheltenham’s Supreme, Mullins wasn’t alone in taking encouragement from the race for both horses.

“The runner-up didn’t jump or travel and maybe he doesn’t like winter ground. So to get as close as he did at the end I take a huge amount from,” he said.

The future performances of both horses will be important in terms of the Royal Bond retaining its Grade 1 status in future but senior handicapper Noel O’Brien was encouraged.

“The first two look good, and they finished clear of horses rated in the 120’s, so I’d say it was a good race,” he said.