The Flooring Porter camp is hoping maturity can help their star performer cope with a return to racing right-handed when he lines up at Punchestown on Saturday.
The popular former dual-stayers hurdle champion is back at Punchestown for the first time in more than 2½ years with connections keeping their fingers crossed he has a happier experience than previously at the Co Kildare track.
Flooring Porter blew his chances almost before the start by getting very upset and then hung very badly left throughout the 2021 Champion Stayers Hurdle before being pulled up behind Klassical Dream.
He has had 10 starts since then, including an impressive start to his chasing career at Cheltenham last month, and now takes on some quality opposition in the Grade Two Florida Pearl Chase.
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It is a competitive seven-runner contest featuring other promising young chasers such as Affordale Fury and the former Triumph Hurdle winner Quilixios.
Much of the intrigue, though, will revolve around how Flooring Porter copes with the track having underlined his preference for going left-handed throughout his glittering career.
“He’s a lot more mature now and hopefully an easier ride. It’s on the chase track at Punchestown and we know it’s a true track. If we’re ever going to try it, I think we should try it now. We can still go to Leopardstown at Christmas,” said trainer Gavin Cromwell.
Willie Mullins isn’t represented in the Grade Two but introduces a high-profile prospect in the preceding Beginners Chase.
Gaelic Warrior landed Grade One honours over hurdles at the Punchestown festival in April and is regarded as a top-notch prospect over fences by his trainer.
Mullins, who holds the ace for Saturday’s Grade One Morgiana Hurdle in State Man, has another interesting Punchestown contender in Predator’s Gold and will also be represented at Haydock.
Champion amateur rider Patrick Mullins travels to Merseyside to team up with his Cheltenham festival winner Gaillard Du Mesnil in a conditions chase. Brian Hayes is on the Mullins-trained Fine Margin in a later valuable handicap hurdle which also includes Emmet Mullins’s Slate Lane.
In other news, the controversial horse, Flemensface, banned for 14 months following a positive drugs test after winning a point-to-point race earlier this year, has been reinstated as the winner of a bumper contest he subsequently contested in Cork.
Flemensface was produced by Co Cork handler Alan Ahern to win a point to point at Knockanohill in March and a month later the horse landed a bumper for trainer Michael Griffin.
However, he returned a positive test for clenbuterol, a prohibited substance when not administered under the direction of a vet, after the point to point and was disqualified by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) from both contests.
Prior to that, the horse was sold to Grand National winning trainer Lucinda Russell at a Cheltenham Tattersalls Sale in April despite Ahern having been told of the positive test result before Flemensface won his bumper.
After the disciplinary process concluded, Flemensface was returned to Tattersalls and his new owners were reimbursed. However, Russell’s partner, former champion jockey Peter Scudamore, said the process didn’t encourage confidence in the Irish market.
He said there was no publicly available information to let any potential purchaser know of a positive test. The IHRB said it had no role in the purchase or sale of horses but does advise that prospective owners should be notified of any adverse medication findings.
The IHRB confirmed on Friday that Ahern’s appeal to a referrals committee against the severity of a six-month suspension of his licence to train, and a €1,250 fine, has been unsuccessful.
However, Flemensface has been reinstated as the winner of the Cork bumper as he did not test positive for a prohibited substance after that race.
