Zarak The Brave looked beforehand like the proverbial Grade One horse in a handicap although it was courage as well as class that secured Willie Mullins’s star Guinness Galway Hurdle glory on Thursday.
No four-year-old had won the festival’s Ladies Day highlight since Perugino Diamond in 2000 but after briefly being headed on the run-in, Zarak The Brave rallied so well he edged out Jesse Evans by a head with My Mate Mozzie three parts of a length further back in third.
If it was bad luck for topweight Jesse Evans – runner up for a second year running – it was an undeniably impressive performance by the 9-2 winner under champion jockey Paul Townend.
Mixing it with his top quality stable companions Lossiemouth and Gala Marceau through the Spring underlined Zarak The Brave’s quality and one of the most competitive handicaps of the year demanded he live up to his name.
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In a ferociously run contest, the youngster shaped like a winner before the last only for the premium to be on grit rather than shaping after it.
“Paul thought he was beaten but when he changed his whip and hit him one little smack the horse got down and galloped again. That just shows how brave he is,” Mullins said.
It was a record sixth Galway Hurdle for Mullins whose three previous winners, Saldier, Aramon and Sharjah, all had Grade One victories already under their belt before scoring.
Zarak The Brave might yet attain such heights in reverse and Mullins added: “He is a lightly-race four year old and the Morgiana Hurdle is a possibility now along with the Fishery Lane Hurdle at Naas in November.
“There is every possibility he could be a Champion Hurdle horse and he is going along those lines.”
The winner’s owners, Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, enjoyed Galway Plate success in 2019 with Borice. The festival’s lure, and the prospect of Hurdle success brought Munir to Ballybrit from the south of France while Souede came from Alaska!
Townend first burst on the scene in 2008 when winning the Galway Hurdle as a 17-year-old on Indian Pace and quipped afterwards: “I thought the game was easy back then – I found out since it’s a little bit harder!”
Glan, who got into the race as a reserve, started a well-backed 4-1 favourite but was pulled up by the Plate winning rider Danny Gilligan.
If ante-post Cheltenham odds might have felt incongruous at Galway in August it didn’t stop the big-race winner getting 20-1 quotes for the 2024 Champion Hurdle.
It wasn’t like he was the first Mullins winner on Thursday to get 20-1 Cheltenham quotes either as Hercule Du Seuil got the same for next year’s Arkle after a Grade Three victory under jockey Mark Walsh.
The odds-on favourite adopted his usual policy of going forward and made light of Ballybrit’s undulations to beat the outsider Solness by six and a half lengths.
“That’s the first time I’ve ridden him over fences. Last time I rode him was at Fairyhouse at Easter and he nearly ran away with me there, but fences have him copped on now.
“He has a look at what he’s doing and he’s not a tearaway and it’s helping him get home better,” Walsh reported.
Mullins proceeded to complete a hat-trick on the day when the odds-on I Will Be Baie landed the bumper.
Thursday’s flat feature, the Listed Corrib Stakes, contained an English hope in Dandy Alys but she had to settle for third behind Joseph O’Brien’s 12-1 winner Miramis.
Jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle, who later doubled up on Granville Street, got a perfect tow around from the 5-2 favourite Keep In Touch and Miramis nailed her rival by a neck.
Dandy Alys’ jockey Colin Keane had better luck on his father Gerry’s stalwart Laughifuwant who enjoyed a fourth career success – and a third at the track – in a handicap.
There was significant market confidence in the Mullins hope Stoke The Fire for the mile and a half handicap but he couldn’t overhaul Granville Street in the climb up the hill.
The Big Doyen could afford to drift around on the run-in of the novice hurdle and still hold off What Path.
“Last winter he didn’t go on the heavy ground and it wasn’t working out for us. He went up in trip and letting him bowl along in races has suited and he wants nice ground.
“I think he will be a cracking horse over fences but we’ll see where things go over hurdles first. He is electric to jump and I think will be the same over fences,” said his trainer Peter Fahey.
A Ladies Day attendance of 25,924 was up from last year’s corresponding figure of 23,136.
