Carlow trainer Willie Mullins was the coolest man among the 45,000 crowd in Cheltenham yesterday evening which was surprising because he was the source of the Irish success on the festival's second day. Mullins (41), trained Florida Pearl to justify his status as the Irish "banker" of the meeting in the Royal & Sun Alliance Chase and then his Alexander Banquet won the concluding bumper, defeating the heavily-backed favourite Joe Mac in the process. Had Joe Mac won, it would have cost bookmakers more than ú1 million.
"A brilliant day," was the typically unflustered Mullins view of proceedings but then this was his fourth Cheltenham victory as a trainer and his third in a row in the bumper. Others were not as measured. "I didn't enjoy it, I was so nervous my glasses were shaking. But I'll enjoy it now," said former Irish rugby international Archie O'Leary after his wife Violet's colours were carried to a dramatic victory.
The 11/8 favourite had been hailed as the best prospect since Arkle but notions of a Cotswolds cakewalk were banished when the Adrian Maguire-ridden Escarte figue made Florida Pearl and Richard Dunwoody pull out all the stops to win 1 1/2 lengths. Dunwoody and Florida Pearl returned to a huge reception with the normally reserved Co Down-born jockey punching the air in jubiliation. "It's just a wonderful feeling to come back to a reception like this on an Irish horse," said Dunwoody who was riding his first winner of the meeting.
There was a less hysterical reaction for Alexander Banquet but it was still a momentous occasion for 18-year-old champion amateur Ruby Walsh, son of the RTE racing pundit Ted Walsh.
The somewhat muted reception was because of the huge gamble on the J.P. McManus-owned Joe Mac who started at 6/4 after being 3/1 in the morning. Joe Mac, looked set to justify the confidence as they turned into the straight but couldn't get by the winner. "Brilliant," said Walsh Snr as he kissed his wife Helen in the winners' enclosure. Brilliant was also the word their son used to describe winning on only his third ever ride at Cheltenham.
