One of the most glaring and puzzling omissions on Willie Mullins’ remarkable career record was finally addressed here on Monday when Don Poli, the odds-on favourite, gave Ireland’s champion trainer his first success in the feature event at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting.
Mullins has had three beaten favourites or joint-favourites in the Lexus in the last 10 years and was leaving as little as possible to chance this time by saddling three of the six runners, including the front two in the betting. Sir Des Champs, the second-favourite, ran poorly but Don Poli showed typical courage to take the lead from Foxrock at the last and then hold the late challenge of First Lieutenant.
Bryan Cooper, Don Poli’s jockey, had allowed On His Own — Mullins’ third runner — and Foxrock to build a healthy lead over the first two miles. Don Poli has run in snatches at times in the past but made ground smoothly when asked on the run to the second-last, then jumped into a narrow lead at the final fence and stayed on well to win by half a length.
“Bryan said he was lazy and he thought he was in trouble going to the last,” Mullins said, “but he picked up again and went on. He never shows off. He just does what he has to do and in those [heavy] conditions things are very tough. It’s hard to know how good he is or how much more he has to produce but I was very happy with him.”
Synchronised and Denman have won the Lexus and gone on to take the Cheltenham Gold Cup — another race, oddly enough, that Mullins has yet to win — in the last eight seasons and Don Poli already has a Festival victory on his record in the RSA Chase last March.
His determination here was not enough to reduce his Gold Cup odds, however, and instead Don Poli drifted slightly with several firms to a top price of 6-1. Better news for Mullins, though, is that Djakadam, last year’s Gold Cup runner-up, tightened up as a result and is now the general 4-1 favourite to go one place better on 18 March.
“I think Bryan is getting confidence in Don Poli now,” Mullins said. “He’s a lazy horse and he keeps it for when it matters and that’s what I like in a chaser.
“I don’t think he will run again [before Cheltenham]. That’s two tough races now, one after the other. We’ll focus on March, I think. The race at Cheltenham [the Cotswold Chase] at the end of next month looks like the one for Djakadam [before the Gold Cup].
“Djakadam’s form is there. He’s been there in Grade One company. That’s Don Poli’s first Grade One in senior company and he’s only ever going to win a race. It’s not going to make him fall in price.”
Don Poli is one of several possible Gold Cup runners for Michael O’Leary’s Gigginstown Stud operation and Cooper, his retained jockey, could well be aboard Don Cossack, a faller when challenging two out in Saturday’s King George VI Chase at Kempton, at Cheltenham in March.
Gordon Elliott, Don Cossack’s trainer, confirmed after winning the card’s Grade One staying hurdle with Prince Of Scars that the chaser is fine after his fall. He was also clear about his plans for Don Cossack now. “Gold Cup,” Elliott said, “and we might go to Thurles for the race [the Kinloch Brae Chase in mid-January] that he won last year.”
Prince Of Scars made the most of a disappointing run by Arctic Fire, the runner-up in last year’s Champion Hurdle who was making his first start at three miles here, but was an easy winner and is now around 14-1 for the World Hurdle in March. It is a reasonable price in an open year, though Elliott could be reluctant to run Prince Of Scars on good ground or faster.
This is a meeting which can produce a Festival contender from anywhere and Zabana, who made a successful debut over fences in the card’s beginners’ chase, is now quoted for the JLT Chase and the RSA Chase in March.
Djakadam won the same race on this card two years ago and Mullins had two well-regarded runners in Tell Us More, who was sixth behind Douvan in last season’s Supreme Novice Hurdle, and Blazer, a recent import from France. Both were beaten by the final fence, however, as Zabana came with a smooth run under Davy Russell to beat Blair Perrone by one-and-three-quarter lengths.
Zabana also has form on spring ground at Cheltenham, having run Aux Ptits Soins to a neck when giving him 5lb in last season’s Coral Cup, and went on to finish third behind Jezki and Hurricane Fly at Punchestown a month later. With so much attention focused on Mullins’ runners, Zabana has crept into the Festival betting relatively unnoticed but his trainer, Andrew Lynch, a former travelling head lad for Noel Meade, has plenty of experience with high-quality horses.
“I can go where I like with him now and I think he’ll want three miles,” Lynch said. “We’ll probably come back here for the [Grade One] Moriarty [in February], that looks the likely one.
“He can really gallop along on good ground, which he couldn’t do today as we were worried that he wouldn’t get home. He’s a great stayer and he’ll gallop all day.”
