RACING:PAUL TOWNEND was coolness personified as he brought Golden Silver to deny the enterprisingly-ridden Rubi Light in the feature Tote Pick Six Normans Grove Chase at Fairyhouse yesterday.
Andrew Lynch set out to make all the running on Rubi Light and initiated a handy lead, while Townend sat contented in second with the two other runners well back.
When Townend asked the 2 to 11 shot to gain ground on the pacemaker, the response was decisive. The protagonists jumped the final fence together but Golden Silver forged clear to win by five-and-a-half lengths.
“The race didn’t pan out the way Paul thought it might,” trainer Willie Mullins said. “We thought Adrian Maguire’s horse (Let Yourself Go) might make the running.
“Golden Silver would prefer horses around him. He had to go off after the leader on his own and Paul said he hated it – the ground was quite gluey and sticky.
“He’ll be entered in the Ryanair Chase and Champion Chase at Cheltenham, but is more likely to run in the Ryanair as he is about 10lb short of the standard for the Champion Chase.”
Punters had their fingers burned when the Mullins-trained 4 to 7 shot Sous Les Cieux was turned over by 33 to 1 outsider Bayross in a maiden hurdle.
Leading two out in the hands of Andrew Lynch, Bayross pulled steadily clear to seal success by two-and-a-half lengths from Sous Les Cieux.
Favourite-backers were in a better mood after Our Girl Salley landed the odds in the Mares’ Novice Hurdle to stretch her unbeaten run to five.
However, the 2 to 5 hot-pot was made to work hard by Belle Brook (20 to 1), who pulled on gamely after leading briefly two out.
But Barry Geraghty kept Prunella Dobbs’ six-year-old up to the job to score by three-quarters of a length.
“We’ll move forward now and will aim her at another mares’ hurdle here in mid-February,” Dobbs said, “while she will be entered in the novice hurdles and the Mares’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.”
The Paul Nolan-trained Sam Adams (11 to 4) got off the mark over fences under Davy Russell with a sound success over the favourite Arabella Boy in the Irish Stallion Farms Beginners Chase.
Russell completed a 12 to 1 double for owners the Gigginstown House Stud on 5 to 2 favourite Beautiful Sound, trained by Gordon Elliott, in the Tote Trifecta Rollover Handicap Chase.
There was a treble for the owners and a double for Mullins when Lovethehigherlaw, ridden by the trainer’s son, Patrick, justified his prohibitive price of 1 to 3 in the concluding bumper.
