Willie Mullins has saddled more than 3,000 winners over the course of a 32-year training career, but as the 12-year-old Faugheen returned to the unsaddling enclosure here on Sunday after winning the Grade One Flogas Novice Chase, even his trainer could not remember a moment to match it. “I’ve had lots of winners but this was special,” Mullins said. “The way he battled. To come back at his age and do it on the number one stage, that’s fantastic.”
Leopardstown agreed. The grandstand emptied as soon as Faugheen crossed the line half a length in front of Easy Game, a stable companion who is half his age, to acclaim their returning hero just 14 months on from a horrible fall at the same course which left him on the turf for two agonising minutes. Twelve-year-old Grade One winners are a great rarity – only Sizing Europe (2014 Punchestown Champion Chase) and Florida Pearl, in the 2004 Irish Gold Cup, have achieved the feat in recent decades. Victory in a Grade One novice event at such an advance age is more astonishing still and Faugheen’s connections must now decide whether to attempt an unprecedented double at Cheltenham next month.
“I didn’t want to retire him without going over fences,” Mullins said. “That’s what we bought him for. People want to retire horses at 10, 11 or 12, but to me, they have plenty of life in them if they haven’t used up the mileage as younger horses. They an go much longer than people think and he’s the living proof of it. He’s got stamina, he’s got speed, he can jump. He’s got the whole package and a will [to win].”
Faugheen is top-priced at 6-1 favourite for the Marsh [formerly JLT] Novice Chase at Cheltenham next month, and 14-1 for the RSA Chase.
Delta Work, the 5-2 second-favourite, stayed on best at the end of a demanding race for the Irish Gold Cup here on Sunday, beating Kemboy and Presenting Percy to give Gordon Elliott, his trainer, a first success in Ireland’s most prestigious staying chase.
The first three horses home approached the final fence with less than a length between them, but Delta Work jumped best to secure an advantage that he held to the line. It was the fifth Grade One success of his career, which includes a win in the ultra-competitive Pertemps Handicap Hurdle final at the Cheltenham Festival in 2018.
“We missed here last year and went straight to Cheltenham [for the Gold Cup],” Elliott said, “which might not have been ideal. It’s all systems go now for Cheltenham. Our horse is improving the whole time and we can dream about a Gold Cup now.”
Delta Work is top-priced at around 6-1 for the Gold Cup in an open market in which Al Boum Photo, Lostintranslation, Kemboy, Santini and Clan Des Obeaux are all on offer at single-figure odds.
Mullins added another significant runner to his Cheltenham team when Asteroin Forlonge forged clear of the Elliott-trained favourite Easywork to win the Chanelle Pharma Novice Hurdle over two miles. His Festival target, though, is more likely to be the two-and-a-half mile Ballymore Novice Hurdle, as Joe Donnelly, his owner, also owns Shishkin, the current favourite for the Supreme Novice Hurdle.
Aspire Tower was sent off at 1-3 to justify his status as favourite for next month’s Triumph Hurdle, only to fall at the last while trying to fend off a strong challenge from Joseph O’Brien’s Cerberus. With the race seemingly at his mercy, Cerberus then idled on the run-in as his stable companion A Wave Of The Sea ran on to snatch the win.
All three seem likely to renew rivalry at the Festival, but the result strengthened the form claims of Allmankind (5-1), who beat Cerberus with ease at Chepstow last month.
Carlisle
1.50 Goobinator 2.20 Mymilan (nap)
2.55 Penny Mallow 3.25 Dorking Cock
4.00 Haul Us In 4.30 Winds Of Fire (nb)
Wolverhampton
5.00 Elusif 5.30 Pearl Spectre 6.00 Buy Me Back
6.30 Comeatchoo 7.00 Via Serendipity
7.30 Bond Angel 8.00 Sheriffmuir 8.30 Ember’s Glow
Fontwell
Meeting abandoned (waterlogging)