Irish Insight: Magnificent seven for Mullins

World Racing / Timeform / 24 January 2012 / Leave a Comment

Willie Mullins enjoyed another good weekend.

"Champagne Fever leapt to the head of the betting for the Champion Bumper after a wide-margin success at Fairyhouse..."

Three graded contests and some interesting novice races were the highlights in Ireland this weekend.....

The main story was the incredible form of Willie Mullins, who saddled seven winners from fourteen races over the two meetings. Blazing Tempo (Timeform rating 153) won an up-to-scratch renewal of the Grade 2 Normans Grove Chase by three-quarters of a length from Noble Prince (159), and both look to hold claims in the Ryanair at Cheltenham, already with form good enough to have seen them make the frame in each of the four renewals since the race was upgraded to Grade 1 status, while both are at least as effective at around two and a half miles.

Mikael d'Haguenet (155) has been well placed to complete a hat-trick over hurdles this season, picking up a four-runner Grade 3 on this occasion, and it's pushing it to say he's back to the form he showed as a novice. This latest facile success does underline he is resurgent to some degree though, and he's worth his place back in stronger company next time.

The two other Mullins-trained winners who need mentioning in respect to Cheltenham are Champagne Fever and Midnight Game . Champagne Fever (NHF 110p) leapt to the head of the betting for the Champion Bumper after a wide-margin success at Fairyhouse, but for all his undoubted ability he didn't look the finished article, displaying a high head carriage, so may not represent much value at around [11.0] in a race where the ante-post market traditionally proves more volatile than most at the Festival.

Midnight Game (142) put up a decidedly useful effort to defeat Dylan Ross (141) by just over two lengths in a novice hurdle at Naas and looks a graded-class performer in the making, getting on top for just one tap with the whip after the last. He seems quite highly strung though, which could count against him in the Supreme, that seemingly his target judged on the respective markets. Dylan Ross could be one to bear in mind for that race as a back-to-lay option, though, as he seems just the type to benefit from drier underfoot conditions, with slick jumping and a high cruising speed his primary tools.

One race that didn't go the way of Willie Mullins was the Grade 2 Woodlands Park 100 Club Novice Chase over three miles at Naas, Noel Meade's Medical Card (131) coming out on top instead, proving well suited by the step up in trip to record a gutsy neck success over Crash (131), with short-priced favourite Allee Garde (142) a further half-length away in third.

It wasn't a strong race for the grade, though, so the winner could prove hard to place under a penalty. Crash emerged as theoretically the best horse at the weights, with his rider Adrian Heskin unable to claim his usual 5 lb, and may have come out on top anyway had he jumped the last two fences with more fluency. Allee Garde fell a long way short of the form he seemed to show in a Grade 1 the time before, this more in keeping with his other efforts, and he could be worth trying at an extreme trip with stamina and sound jumping his main assets.

At Fairyhouse, Grade 1-winning hurdler Shot from The Hip (124p) faced an easier task than on his chasing bow, when fourth to the highly promising Hidden Cyclone, and duly got off the mark in a maiden chase over an extended two miles, doing it with more in hand than the bare margin of half a length over Ninetieth Minute (121) would suggest, getting on top close home for just hands and heels. He'll probably find Cheltenham coming too soon but should be found opportunities to make his mark in good company this spring, almost certainly having more progression in him over the larger obstacles.