Willie Mullins guides Blue Bullet to debut success at Cork
A new ground at Cork was not a concern for Willie Mullins’ 2-year-old charge, Blue Bullet, who started off his journey with a close win in the Irish Stallion Farms European Breeders Fund Maiden.
The going was heavy, but the novice handled the conditions quite nicely. He chased the leaders in fourth, and subsequently improved his work to lead one and a half furlongs before the wire.
He stayed on well inside the final furlong, and with the help of an all out effort in the final moments, the juvenile grabbed the top spot by a neck’s distance. Under Gary Carroll, the 7-1 chance had to perform out of his skin to make a winning debut.
In the hands of Pat Smullen, Scent Of Roses was not much behind. D. K. Weld’s trainee was slightly awkward in the beginning and as a result, settled in last. The 2-year-old quickly raised her game, and became second a few furlongs before the finishing line.
She kept running well in the final stages, but failed to overtake the leading runner.
The outcome was a huge disappointment for Performance, who was carrying the highest odds of 11 to 10. A. P. O'Brien’s trainee broke well and established his supremacy at the start. However, he weakened a couple of furlongs before the post and consequently,
ended up third by four and a quarter lengths.
Mullins has trained plenty of champion runners, but admitted that it was a different experience to work with the 2-year-old. He, meanwhile, expects the son of Red Clubs to continue his good form in the future.
"I'm not sure the race he won at Cork has worked out very well, but there are very few other opportunities to run him. Hopefully he'll handle the ground, he handled it on his debut, but we are coming back in trip with him because when Gary rode him the last
day he said he'd be better off over five for the time being,” said Mullins.
He added: "One thing I haven't had, I don't think, is a runner in a two-year-old Listed race. I have plenty of horses that can run on the Flat but I've never had many two-year-olds."
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