Friday's Gold Cup is the Cheltenham festival prize Willie Mullins cherishes most but his illustrious CV also has a notable Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase blank, one which Un De Sceaux looks set to fill.
Unlike five frustrating runner-up placing’s in steeplechasing’s ‘blue riband’ Mullins hasn’t come even close to winning the two-mile crown before.
It is mostly forgotten now how Florida Pearl tackled the Champion Chase towards the end of his career in 2003, finishing out of the money behind Moscow Flyer. Golden Silver carried the same colours into fourth in 2011.
However Un De Sceaux is the first outstanding candidate Mullins has had for the race. And just the press the point home fully, in Felix Yonger the champion trainer looks to have another good chance, perhaps even a shot at saddling a 1-2.
If that sounds presumptive in a field containing one of the most outstanding two-mile champions of all, Sprinter Scare, other previous title-holders in Dodging Bullets and Sire De Gruggy, not to mention a handful of other proven Grade 1 winners, it does allow for the suspicion that Sprinter & Co appear to be lights of other days.
It’s always dangerous to presume too much when it comes to an outstanding horse like Sprinter Sacre in particular.
He put up a benchmark performance when landing the championship in 2013 and the idea of him in his pomp keeping tabs on Un De Sceaux is one to savour. Even Nicky Henderson concedes that pomp is in the past but today's Sprinter Sacre chasing Un De Sceaux is still an enticing prospect.
That everything else in the field will be chasing a rear view of the Irish favourite looks beyond dispute. The question could come down to for how long?
For many this will be a classic case of ‘bar a fall.’ The only two occasions Un De Sceaux has been beaten have come when he has hit the floor. It’s somewhat simplistic to boil it down to his greatest danger being himself but hardly completely ridiculous either.
Should Un De Sceaux become the 18th individual Irish trained Champion Chase winner his addition to the two-mile roll of honour will be apt. In a discipline devoted to speed, dash and inch-accurate jumping, the Mullins star is almost a caricature.
Wearing his heart on his sleeve, the Un Sceaux battle-plan classically involves going as fast as possible for two miles, daring anyone else to try and keep up. It’s a high-risk strategy and it helped catch him out at Leopardstown over Christmas.
What makes it even more difficult for his opposition now however is that he looked to have learned the lessons from that with a subsequently faultless victory at Ascot where the flamboyance of old was somewhat contained. A repeat of such controlled aggression will make Un De Sceaux an even tougher opponent.
Special Tiara and his former stable companion Sizing Granite are two other Irish hopefuls and it will be fascinating to see if Special Tiara takes on Un De Sceaux for the lead in the early stages. Such a tactic might have been productive in the past although the Ascot evidence suggests maybe not now.
Felix Yonger has understandably been in the shadow of his stable-mate this season but this former Grade 1 Punchestown festival winner has looked better than ever in his last couple of starts and should relish quicker ground conditions here.
Any mishap for Un De Sceaux and Mullins’s chances of a first Champion Chase won’t disappear: however it looks a Cheltenham championship event that revolves around the favourite.
1: Un De Sceaux. 2: Felix Yonger. 3: God’s Own
