Horse Racing Ireland’s central prize fund got an unwanted boost after Fact To File landed a farcical Grade One success at Sunday’s Dublin Racing Festival in Leopardstown.
The JP McManus-owned winner finished alone in the €150,000 Ladbrokes Novice Chase after his sole opponent, Gaelic Warrior, also trained by Willie Mullins, exited at the final fence.
It was a damp squib outcome unparalleled at the top level in Ireland and put a seal on an unfortunate chain of events.
The original five declarations for the valuable and prestigious event had been reduced after Gordon Elliott took out both American Mike, due to a going change, and Found A Fifty who had run the day before.
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It left the prospect of a Mullins trio taking each other on but even that didn’t happen as Grangeclare West was reported cast in his box and taken out too.
Gaelic Warrior started a 4/7 favourite to beat his stable companion in a match but struggled from the third last and was well beaten when blundering at the last and firing Paul Townend out of the saddle.
It left Fact To File to saunter home on his own and secure the almost €90,000 first prize.
HRI confirmed afterwards that the €57,000 place money, including €4,500 for fifth, won’t be paid out.
“The winner gets first prize as advertised. The rest isn’t paid out and is retained by HRI,” a spokesman said.
“It’s an unusual occurrence but came about as a result of three non-runners and an unseat at the last. It’s a race that has a long and storied history but some years there are more contenders for these Grade One races than others. This year there were fewer runners than you would prefer,” he added.
The nearest parallel at Grade One level in Ireland came in 2013 when the Mullins trained Briar Hill landed the Navan Novice Hurdle when it still had top-flight status. Briar Hill faced a single opponent in Azorian who finished runner up by almost five lengths.
“It is frustrating. It’s unfortunate Grangeclare West wasn’t right this morning and had to be withdrawn. I never dreamt that American Mike would come out, I don’t know what happened there. It is unfortunate but we run everything we can,” Mullins said.
“We just aim for these festivals and hope they all turn up. As you can see, they don’t all get there, Grangeclare West and then Gaelic Warrior had a blowout, and yesterday we had a few favourites beaten. It’s racing, and that’s why you have to come to find out,” he added.
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