Veteran performer Appreciate It secured a first success in two years when leading home a Willie Mullins clean sweep of Sunday’s Grade Two highlight at Thurles.
The 2021 Cheltenham winner hadn’t won since landing a novice chase at the start of 2023 but put that right with a decisive success in the Horse & Jockey Hotel Chase.
Discarded by Paul Townend in preference for Blood Destiny, Sean O’Keeffe stepped in for the mount on the 11-year-old winner who relished quick ground conditions to run out a six-length winner over Classic Getaway.
Blood Destiny started as a 7-4 favourite but could only plug on for third.
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Describing the 2021 Supreme Novices Hurdle winner as “one of the yard favourites”, Patrick Mullins, representing his father, pointed to Liverpool’s Topham Trophy in Aintree as a possible target for Appreciate It.
“He doesn’t quite stay three miles. I think that intermediate trip and good ground, just below the top class really suits him,” he said. “He always had a very high level of form but hasn’t hit the back of the net often so that was brilliant for him. Obviously, he split Galopin Des Champs and Fastorslow in last year’s John Durkan Chase so has always had a high level of form. He probably missed his prime when he got injured after winning the Supreme, so it is great for him to win such a prestigious race as this today.”
Earlier at Thurles, ground conditions took their toll on the Grade Two Mares Chase with likely favourite Only By Night taken out due to the going. Spindleberry was also a non-runner.
It left Nara, runner-up to Only By Night on her previous start at Cork, to pick up the valuable black type as Mark Walsh guided JP McManus’s mare to score as a 6-5 favourite.
Walsh described the going as “lively” and said of the winner: “She is still forward going and keen and jumped a bit better today although made a few novicy mistakes. Hopefully, we can iron those out of her, but she was good. She is only five and it was only her fourth run over fences, so she is still learning.”
In other news, Henry De Bromhead’s Journey With Me ran third in Sunday’s Fleur De Lys Chase at Windsor behind the winner Protektorat. Dan Skelton’s front-runner dominated the race throughout to run out a 23-length winner from Djelo with the Irish raider behind him.
Protketorat, described by jockey Harry Skelton as the “maddest horse I’ve ever ridden”, is now likely to try to defend the Ryanair crown he won at Cheltenham last year.
“He’s crazy. He’ll come out tomorrow and want to go five times around the gallops,” Skelton said. “But that’s what makes him so good, his will to keep galloping. He’s relentless.”
As a result, the winner was cut to as low as 8-1 in some antepost lists to once again pick up the Ryanair on day three of the Cheltenham festival in March.
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