REPORT FROM LEOPARDSTOWN:RUBY WALSH continued his remorseless march through Ireland's big-race calendar when Neptune Collonges ticked off yesterday's Hennessy Gold Cup at Leopardstown for the champion jockey.
The Paul Nicholls-trained grey justified 8 to 13 odds in grinding out a five-length victory over Notre Pere and will now join his stable companions, Kauto Star and Denman, in trying to repeat last year’s clean sweep of the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Just as in 2008 the Nicholls trio dominate the Gold Cup ante-post betting and Neptune Collonges is now a general 6 to 1 shot for the festival after recovering from his fall at Leopardstown during Christmas.
“The team have done a great job because when we schooled him the week after that fall his confidence was shot to pieces. He ended up leading the babies over hurdles and eventually he got his confidence back,” Nicholls said.
“It was a lot of work and just like Kauto we stuck a noseband on him today to get him to concentrate and that’s the best he has ever jumped.”
Walsh certainly didn’t look to have any doubts about Neptune Collonges’ and the partnership led before the third last when The Listener started to fade with Notre Pere never looking likely to tag him back.
Cooldine had earlier provided Walsh with another Grade One success in the Dr PJ Moriarty Chase but the Hennessy was filling another significant blank in Walsh’s CV.
Just three weeks earlier Brave Inca had done the same in the Irish Champion Hurdle and Walsh became the first since Mark Dwyer in 1995 to complete the major Leopardstown double.
“I managed to be on the wrong one of Willie Mullins’ six or seven times so it’s about time,” he grinned. “We went a good pace and it rode a good race.”
There were no excuses from the Notre Pere camp, even though the ground rode better than many expected. Asked if the going was too quick, Jim Dreaper quipped: “No, the other horse was too quick!”
Willie Mullins, a six-time Hennessy winner in the past, had no runner in the big race but dominated everything else, winning with Cooldine and seeing another Grade One disappear at the last flight of the Deloitte.
Cousin Vinny was galloping all over Pandorama only to appear to stumble on landing and unseating his jockey, Patrick Mullins. The champion amateur was lucky to escape injury when he was subsequently knocked over by Western Charmer.
With Hurricane Fly ruled out of the race on Saturday due to lameness, and facing a race against time to make Cheltenham, it is a contest the Mullins team will want to forget. “Patrick did everything right. We had a Plan A and Plan A worked out. He just didn’t win,” Mullins Snr shrugged. “The horse had probably never jumped a hurdle at that speed before and he seemed to half knuckle over or slip. It’s one of those things.”
Not surprisingly, though, the way Cousin Vinny travelled through the race had bookmakers cutting his Cheltenham odds for both the Supreme and the Ballymore. Noel Meade though is eyeing the three-mile Albert Bartlett at Cheltenham for Pandorama.
It was a happier story for Mullins after the Moriarty as Cooldine’s victory over Forpadydeplasterer saw him cut to 6 to 1 favouritism for the RSA Chase at Cheltenham. “That looks the obvious race for him.”
Walsh had earlier also won a handicap on Savitha and Mullins completed his own treble as the odds-on Sicilian Secret gave him a remarkable 30th bumper victory this season so far.
The winner will join the Mullins bumper team at Cheltenham and the trainer confessed: “I’ve never had a team like it and this one has been showing us a fair bit at home.”
The week-longpostponement of yesterday's Hennessy Gold Cup card appeared to badly hit Leopardstown's attendance figure as a crowd total of 10,024 was down over four thousand on the corresponding tally in 2008.
Betting figures also tumbled with bookmaker turnover of €1,559,614 down almost a €1 million on last year. A Tote return of €360,014 compared to a 2008 figure of €637,542.
