Willie Mullins took care of business both home and away on Easter Sunday including a Grade One double at Fairyhouse.
Aurora Vega lived up to her pedigree with top-flight success in the Honeysuckle Novice Hurdle and another mare, Spindleberry, landed the WillowWarm Gold Cup.
Having landed Cork’s feature – the Michael O’Sullivan Chase – with Mister Policeman, Mullins also maintained his challenge to retain the British trainers’ championship with a valuable one-two in Plumpton’s Sussex Champion Hurdle through Absurde and Daddy Long Legs.
The lion’s share of that £75,000 (almost €87,000) first prize narrowed the gap to Dan Skelton on the countdown to the end of the cross-channel season at Sandown on Saturday.
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Willie Mullins lands Grade One Easter Sunday double at Fairyhouse
Saturday’s Fairyhouse races rescheduled for Tuesday after heavy rain leaves standing water on track
Mullins saddled eight for the Honeysuckle and although betting suggested it would be a shoot-out between Henry de Bromhead’s The Big Westerner and Air Of Entitlement, the result ultimately vindicated Paul Townend’s judgment.
Having been a fortnight out of action after Aintree, the champion jockey-elect opted correctly from the Mullins squad and managed a far from straightforward 12-1 shot to successfully make most of the running.
Despite running keen, hanging and fluffing the last two flights, the daughter of six-time Cheltenham festival winner Quevega held on beat the English outsider That’ll Do Moss.
“You can’t beat breeding!” joked Townend. “She likes it here as well. The trip helped a lot.”
Mullins added: “She looks like her mother. She looks like she’s just getting better with age. I remember Quevega’s breeder telling me that it’s part of the family that as they get older – six, seven, eight, nine – that they just get better.”
Townend had to settle for third in the big chase on Champ Kiely as Danny Mullins pounced in the straight on Spindleberry. The winner was cut to 5-1 for next season’s Mares’ Chase at Cheltenham.
“She shows a real liking for this place,” Mullins said. “I thought Danny gave her a lovely ride. Whether she goes on to Punchestown or not we’ll have a look at the programme and see how things are.”
Mullins’s third runner in the race, Ile Atlantique, unseated at the third fence. Jockey Patrick Mullins was stood down for the rest of the day.
Elsewhere, the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board has insisted ground conditions for Easter Monday’s Boylesports Irish Grand National would have been unsuitable had watering not taken place at Fairyhouse last week.
The decision to water came under fire after Saturday’s opening fixture of the Easter festival was cancelled due to surface water following heavy rainfall. The programme has been moved to Tuesday.
Sunday’s Fairyhouse card passed a morning inspection but there were almost 20 horses taken out due to the going, which was officially soft to heavy.
The IHRB said on Sunday the watering that took place at Fairyhouse last Tuesday was carried out on the basis of the weather forecast given to them at that time.
“They watered on Tuesday with a forecast of 25ml of rain up until racing on Saturday. When they went to check on Wednesday morning they had that full week of rain overnight. So naturally they ceased watering and subsequently got in the region of 40ml more than was forecast,” said IHRB spokesman Niall Cronin.
Asked why a precautionary inspection wasn’t announced on Friday, he added: “With the forecast that was there, there was no issue envisaged. The ground wasn’t and still isn’t heavy. What caused the fixture to be cancelled was the volume of rain in a short space of time. It was just sitting there, water lying on the track. That’s what caused the issue.”
He said Fairyhouse got 11ml more than was forecast on Friday night.
“It’s all very unfortunate. These decisions [to water or not] are made by the clerk of the course in conjunction with the course foreman and the course management at all tracks.
“This is highlighted by what happened at Fairyhouse on Saturday, but all year round decisions like this have to be made. In this instance, watering was not the problem. It was the volume of rain on Friday night into Saturday.
“If the forecast they had received on Tuesday had been accurate, it’s not impossible they would have continued to water later on in the week. The ground at Fairyhouse that hasn’t been watered would be unsuitable for this fixture,” added Cronin commented.
