Quevega on top of the World at Punchestown
Back in the days of our forefathers, when radio was still the undisputed king, the BBC had a radio show widely known as Itma.
The acronym stood for It's That Man Again. After the third day of the Punchestown Festival the local trainers are planning something similar but this time standing for It’s That Mullins Again after Willie Mullins took his fourth Grade One race of the week when Quevega won the ladbrokes.com World Series Hurdle.
It was the seventh winner of the week overall for Ireland’s champion trainer and the only blot on the horizon will be the bill for hire of the articulated lorry that will be needed to carry all the trophies back to Co Carlow.
Quevega, along with stable companion Mourad and Alan King’s British raider Karabak, had dominated the market and the same trio were at the front as the field jumped the second-last.
Swinging into the home straight, Karabak, despite the best efforts of Tony McCoy, was the first to crack but Paul Townend was riding with the confidence that can only come from within. There had been doubts about Quevega’s stamina as she was untried over three miles but the jockey seemed to be barely trying himself as the mare eased into the lead approaching the final flight.
Mourad was alongside but not travelling anywhere near as easily. Quevega settled the issue with a good jump to come away three lengths clear of Bensalem, King’s other runner, with Mourad taking third.
Quevega (pictured left) had won the David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival for the past two seasons but her trainer is now considering more lofty ambitions. “Paul said that he was always confident, she was going easy at all stages and the trip was no problem to her,” Mullins said. “The dam had won a few cross-country races so I was fairly confident she would get the trip but you don’t know until you try.
“I’d love to try and win a French Champion Hurdle with her and it’s tempting to go there now because it’s fantastic prize money. Next season she has the class to step back to two miles or we could go for the mares’ race or the World Hurdle. She’ll probably not have a big campaign and could even go to Cheltenham without a run or have one outing beforehand because it suits her.
“The injury she had last year is always at the back of my mind and I don’t want to aggravate it. Mourad ran a cracker for a five-year-old and he used up all his petrol trying to beat Quevega. We’ll look forward to him next season and he might go on the Flat because I don’t think he’s a real winter horse so we could wait for better ground in the spring.”
The spring was back in the step of trainer Eddie Harty after Captain Cee Bee bounced back from a disappointing run at Cheltenham to win the Grade One Ryanair Novices’ Chase. Captain Cee Bee had been well fancied for the Arkle Trophy last month but trailed in eighth, having burst a blood vessel. All that burst here was the hopes of his rivals he led at the last for Tony McCoy and powered home.
“I would have hated to have finished the season without a day like today,” Harty said. “It’s unfortunate what happened at Cheltenham and it’s always worrying and in the back of my mind that it might occur again.
“He’s a marvellous horse. He’s top class when he’s on song and he was tanking along today. He’s come back from a lot of problems to be as good, if not better before and the Champion Chase at Cheltenham is going to be the target next season.”
The target for any trainer with a runner in next season’s La Touche Cup will simply be to find a way to beat Enda Bolger, who won a remarkable 12th renewal in 13 years of the when L’Ami beat stablemate Freneys Well in the famous race over Punchestown’s banks course.
It was a first win in the race for L’Ami, who has been second in the cross-country race at the Cheltenham Festival for the past two years, but a fifth success in the race for amateur rider J T McNamara and Bolger said: “I’m delighted for L’Ami to win the race because he’s been a bridesmaid for a while. I was happy coming to the last and didn’t mind what happened but I’m very pleased for L’Ami.
“The class came out with him in the end, he was fourth in the Gold Cup and the cream came to the top today.”
Even Mullins would admit that, in that race, that man Bolger is hard to beat.
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