It was like Cheltenham in reverse at Punchestown's marathon final day yesterday when the afternoon's big races were dominated by English raiders. Four Grade One pots were up for grabs and three are now winging their way to Britain, along with the two other Grade Ones scalped earlier in the week.
Pride of place on the plane will be the Heineken Gold Cup, deferred from Wednesday, but now safely in the grasp of the Nigel Twiston-Davies stable, courtesy of the dour staying Mahler.
The story of Mahler's progess is easy to tell. He and the other English challenger, Fiddling The Facts, disputed the lead from the second fence, and when the mare crashed to the ground at the second last, Mahler and Carl Llewellyn plugged on to beat Lucky Town, with the 50 to 1 outsider, Pauls Run, in third. Events behind him were less straight forward, however.
The topweight and 2 to 1 favourite Boss Doyle made a bad mistake at the seventh and in truth looked to be starting to struggle in the heavy ground when falling six fences from home. Eton Gale crashed out at the next, and with Miss Orchestra fading, it was left to the ex-hunter Lucky Town to chase Mahler home.
It was Llewellyn's first winner in Ireland, Twiston-Davies' second after winning the bumper on Wednesday and confirmed the rich vein of spring form the stable has had since Earth Summit's Aintree National win.
"Earth Summit is probably getting nervous with this horse about," joked the trainer, who added: "The weights meant Boss Doyle should have won, but you never know in this game and our horse jumps so well. We'll probably go for the Murphys Gold Cup and races like that, and if Mahler progresses like he could, we may end up talking about the Gold Cup."
It's not unreasonable to think Zafarabad may yet end up challenging for the Champion Hurdle after he bounced back from his Triumph Hurdle disappointment to win a titanic battle with Nomadic and Flagship Uberalles for IAWS Champion Juvenile Hurdle.
Zafarabad and Richard Johnson were challenged on all sides at the last but the ex-John Oxx-trained grey battled like a trouper to win in a finish of necks and give David Nicholson his 98th winner this season. "He'll come back at Sandown in the autumn but it will be Christmas before we decide what the plan is. Richard settled him and gave him a lovely ride," Nicholson said.
The Tripleprint Novice Chase was hardly a vintage Grade One, but the Paul Careberry-ridden favourite Direct Route could hardly have won any easier to give Howard Johnson his first Irish success; and it was left to the hardy Punchestown annual Derrymoyle to lift the only home-trained Grade One, the Ballymore Stayers' Hurdle.
Derrymoyle was, remarkably, winning the race for the third time, and despite his wind problems had too much acceleration for the favourite, Paddy's Return, whose chance finally vanished with a mistake at the last. "He has palate trouble and Tony (McCoy) said he gurgled a few times in the race which, considering the way the ground was, shows what a fantastic horse he is. He loves it here, like Red Rum at Aintree," said Derrymoyle's trainer Michael Cunningham.
Apart from all that, the highlight was Risk Of Thunder's fourth consecutive win in the La Touche Cup over the banks, which brought his total of victories over the historic banks to a remarkable seven. Enda Bolger had been worried about the ground for Risk Of Thunder, but once over the double bank for the second time, the race was as good as over and the pair swept home by a distance.
"He's some horse. From the last double bank I saw no one and I was pulling him up a mile out!" grinned Bolger who now intends to run the Sean Connery-owned nine-year-old in the gruelling Velka Pardubicka in the Czech Republic on October 11th. "The topweight is 10st 7lb so I'll be auctioning the ride," Bolger added.
Gazalani got a joyfully vocal reception from trainer Oliver Brady after winning the opener, and favourite backers had to settle for the runner-up spot when Hiwillie couldn't reel in Native Upmanship in the bumper.
