Horse_amp_amp_Hound__06_February_2018
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
RACING<br />
LEOPARDSTOWN<br />
3-4 <strong>February</strong><br />
Supasundae (red hat) reels in<br />
Faugheen en route to a 2 1 ⁄4-length<br />
victory in the Irish Ch<strong>amp</strong>ion Hurdle<br />
‘Robbie Power<br />
was sure<br />
when he had<br />
Faugheen in his<br />
sights, he’d pick<br />
him up — it was<br />
some prep race’<br />
JESSICA HARRINGTON ON<br />
SUPASUNDAE<br />
MIRACLE EDWULF<br />
SCORES UNLIKELY WIN<br />
THE Grade One Unibet Irish<br />
Gold Cup did not look the greatest<br />
race on paper. It contained a<br />
number of the usual suspects,<br />
including Outlander, Djakadam,<br />
the Irish National winner Our<br />
Duke — trying to get back to form<br />
after injury — and Killultagh Vic.<br />
On what was otherwise<br />
a big weekend for Willie Mullins,<br />
he had no luck in this race as<br />
Killultagh Vic was coming<br />
through to win the race when<br />
he fell at the last. That appeared<br />
to open it up for Outlander,<br />
however, it was the Joseph<br />
O’Brien-trained Edwulf — a 33/1<br />
shot patiently ridden by crack<br />
amateur Derek O’Connor — who<br />
outstayed him up the run-in to<br />
win by a neck.<br />
After running in last year’s<br />
four-miler at Cheltenham,<br />
Edwulf suffered oxygen depletion,<br />
collapsed and was on the floor<br />
for over an hour. It is testament<br />
to Cheltenham’s vets that he is<br />
alive, let alone winning at the<br />
top level.<br />
“It didn’t look good at<br />
Cheltenham,” recalled O’Brien.<br />
“But the Cheltenham vets did a<br />
terrific job and encouraged us<br />
that he might recover. He was at<br />
Cheltenham for two weeks before<br />
he came home and I can’t stress<br />
enough the job the vets did. We<br />
started him off at Christmas,<br />
when he just got tired having<br />
been off so long.”<br />
Gold Cup-wise a more telling<br />
result may have been the victory of<br />
the Ladbroke Trophy winner Total<br />
Recall, who claimed the William<br />
Fry Hurdle — his first start since<br />
his win at Newbury in December.<br />
He will go for the Bobbyjo Chase<br />
at Fairyhouse, traditionally more<br />
of a National trial, before Mullins<br />
thinks about the Gold Cup.<br />
SUNDAE’S SUPER SCALP<br />
FAUGHEEN, meanwhile, was out<br />
to put himself back on track for<br />
the Ch<strong>amp</strong>ion Hurdle in the<br />
BHP Insurance Irish Ch<strong>amp</strong>ion<br />
Hurdle and it was certainly better<br />
than his run at Christmas, when<br />
he pulled up. However, finishing<br />
two-and-a-quarter lengths<br />
second to Supasundae — a horse<br />
ostensibly having a warm-up for<br />
the Stayers’ Hurdle — was some<br />
way short of his best.<br />
“I’m disappointed,” said Willie<br />
Mullins. “It wasn’t half as bad as<br />
his run here in December. He had<br />
no spark and he’s going to have to<br />
improve a lot if he is to get back to<br />
anything like he was.”<br />
Supasundae, trained by Jessica<br />
Harrington for the late Alan<br />
and Ann Potts, won last season’s<br />
Coral Hurdle and will now go<br />
to the Stayers’, for which he is<br />
now joint-favourite with Sam<br />
Spinner. Though he clearly gets<br />
three miles, he is yet to win over<br />
it — having been narrowly beaten<br />
by Yanworth at Aintree and<br />
Apple’s Jade at Leopardstown<br />
at Christmas.<br />
“It was basically a sharpener<br />
for the Stayers’,” Harrington said.<br />
“I’ve never seen him jump so well<br />
and he was always travelling —<br />
I thought they might go too quick<br />
for him over two miles but they<br />
didn’t. Robbie Power was sure<br />
when he had Faugheen in his<br />
sights he would pick him up and<br />
he did. When he jumped the last<br />
he pricked his ears and galloped<br />
all the way to the line.”<br />
She added: “It was some prep.<br />
He’s only in the three-mile race<br />
at Cheltenham and that’s where<br />
he will go. He’s a much better<br />
horse on better ground and<br />
doesn’t like slogging around on<br />
heavy, which is why he is so much<br />
better in the spring.”<br />
Total Recall (Paul Townend, red) warms up for the Cheltenham Gold Cup with a winning run over hurdles<br />
Pictures by Getty Images<br />
66 <strong>Horse</strong> & <strong>Hound</strong> 8 <strong>February</strong> <strong>2018</strong>