An impeccably judged front-running ride by Danny Mullins helped Flooring Porter retain his status as the leading stayer over timber at Cheltenham on Thursday, on a St Patrick’s Day afternoon when Irish-trained horses took all three of the Grade One events.
Mullins had a grip on the three-mile Stayers’ Hurdle from the off, jumping into a handy lead as Klassical Dream, the favourite and another potential front-runner, proved reluctant to start before settling towards the rear. The 2019 winner, Paisley Park, who was also reluctant to line up before his last race, jumped off with the field but never threatened to land a blow as Mullins dictated from the head of the field.
Flooring Porter was still travelling strongly on the turn for home and though Thyme Hill stayed on well into second, Mullins’s mount was still nearly three lengths to the good at the line.
“Danny is so good with those front-runners,” Gavin Cromwell, the winner’s trainer, said. “He seems to have a serious clock in his head and he’s a real horseman, it’s there for everyone to see.”
There was high drama at the end of the opening Turners Novice Chase as Galopin Des Champs, the odds-on favourite, slipped on landing after jumping the last fence with a long lead. That left Bob Olinger, who traded at 999-1 in running on Betfair, to come home 40 lengths clear of Busselton and give Henry de Bromhead and Rachael Blackmore a very fortunate Grade One win.
“We looked well beaten, obviously,” De Bromhead said. “I was surprised to see him off the bridle as early as he was. I never thought I’d see a horse do that to Bob. And obviously, we all want to win but we don’t like to win like that, but it’s great to win, of course.
“Rachael said she wasn’t happy with him at all, so we’re going to get him looked into, which we would have had to do anyway if Galopin Des Champs had stood up. We need to go and dig and see what is wrong with him, because he definitely didn’t look right.”
Willie Mullins, the trainer of Galopin Des Champs, was philosophical in defeat.
“Paul [Townend] said he landed properly and just slipped after landing, so it’s just one of those things,” Mullins said. “It’s disappointing but we’ve got a sound jockey and a sound horse and we live to fight another day. And we’ve been on the other end too, getting presented with a race when another horse falls.
“We have a very special horse on our hands. We can do anything we want with him now and maybe go back to two miles or two and a quarter.”
Townend gained some compensation when Allaho produced a repeat performance of his all-the-way success in the Ryanair Chase last year, his third at this year’s Festival. He is one in front of Blackmore, Patrick Mullins and Nico de Boinville heading into the final afternoon on Friday.
