Michael O’Leary will have left the course in a far better mood than Willie Mullins on Tuesday evening, after Apple’s Jade, one of the 60 horses the owner removed from the Mullins yard last autumn, beat off two of her former stable companions to win the Mares’ Hurdle, and ensure Mullins drew a blank on the Festival’s opening day for the first time since 2008.
The Mares’ Hurdle was the obvious place on Tuesday’s card where the paths of Mullins, O’Leary and some of the horses who moved to a new home as a result of their dispute over training fees seemed certain to cross. Apple’s Jade was an outstanding juvenile for Mullins last season, when her victories included a 41-lengths success in a Grade One race at Aintree.
In terms of both numbers and the betting she faced a stern task against the twin powers of Vroum Vroum Mag, last year’s winner of the same race, and Limini, another Festival winner last year, who had beaten Apple’s Jade on her previous start.
Limini set off as the 6-4 favourite with Vroum Vroum Mag at 11-4 and Apple’s Jade the outsider of the big three at 7-2, but when the tapes went up, it was Bryan Cooper, on Apple’s Jade, who took the initiative and settled his partner close to a steady pace. Ruby Walsh, on Limini, and Paul Townend, aboard Vroum Vroum Mag, were two or three lengths further back, and while both closed up powerfully in the home straight, Apple’s Jade found a final surge after the last to carry her to a one-and-a-half length success.
“She’s a real battler,” Cooper said. “She outbattled Vroum Vroum Mag at Fairyhouse [earlier in the season] and I was confident she would do it today. She winged the last and it’s a great job done.”
Elliott was one of the main beneficiaries of O’Leary’s decision to quit the Mullins stable and he will saddle Outlander, another horse who moved home in the autumn, in Friday’s Gold Cup.
“This was her Gold Cup,” he said of Apple’s Jade. “We kept our mouths shut after [her defeat at] Punchestown because we knew she would come on a good bit from it.”
O’Leary, who also owns the penultimate race winner, the 16-1 shot Tiger Roll, paid tribute to Elliott’s role in overturning Apple’s Jade’s form with Limini but could not resist an oblique reference to the winner’s former trainer.
“It’s a great training performance by Gordon,” O’Leary said. “He gave her a run a couple of weeks ago and he felt she’d come on for it. She was down coming to the last but she battles.
“We all love Cheltenham. The amphitheatre is incredible and the racing is very tough. I have never had a winner on the Tuesday, so it is great to have the pressure off. Now I know how Willie Mullins feels, banging in the winners on the first day. Normally, I’m here sweating on the last day.”
Meanwhile, the contender did what was required here on Tuesday, as Altior, an odds-on chance for months, sauntered home by six lengths in the Arkle Trophy. Now it is up to Douvan, in the Champion Chase on Wednesday, to make the match and set the date for what promises to be one of the great head-to-heads at next year’s Festival.
It will be worth the wait if all goes well with Altior and Douvan in the meantime, a race that will not simply be a clash between two of the best two‑mile chasers of recent seasons, but also between Nicky Henderson and Willie Mullins, the most successful trainers in Festival history. The first price to appear here was 3-1 against Altior but either horse could set off as favourite if both make it to post a year from now.
Altior’s performance was not as spectacular as that of Sprinter Sacre, the last great two-miler to pass through Henderson’s hands, in the same race in 2012, but there was a similar sense of inevitability about the outcome from the earliest stages. A faint peck at the sixth was as close as he came to a mistake and the seven-year-old is unbeaten in all 10 of his starts over hurdles and fences.
Douvan’s unblemished record since joining Willie Mullins is more impressive still and stands at 13 wins before Wednesday’s start at Cheltenham. It seems the only way either horse’s winning streak will end is at the hands of the other.
“Altior is a hugely talented horse,” Henderson said. “He has been pretty perfect all year. His jumping was accurate and he’s got such scope that at times it was getting exuberant. I’m not sure if he will run again this season, there’s no reason why he shouldn’t and Sandown might be the race for him [on 29 April].”
Altior’s connection could probably seek out an early meeting with Douvan at Punchestown a few days earlier but Henderson did not seem inclined to give the idea serious consideration.
“His life is still in front of him,” Henderson said. “It is only his first season over fences and hopefully Douvan will do his job and then we can all meet up next year. There is so much to look forward to.”
Nico de Boinville, Altior’s jockey, missed his first three races this season after breaking his arm in a fall at Cheltenham in November but was able to enjoy an easy Grade One success on only his second ride at the track since.
“You try to keep as cool as you can but you are aware of the expectation for a wonderful horse,” De Boinville said. “It took me a while to get him into gear but once he did he took off up the hill. My horse travels and jumps and wherever you put him, he’s a great horse to ride. Once he gets into gear, he’s hard to stop, it’s just getting him into gear. Then he takes off.”
Altior and De Boinville fought off the challenge from Min, a warm favourite from the Willie Mullins stable, in the Supreme Novice Hurdle last year and the Irish trainer again had to settle for second place on Tuesday as the 25-1 outsider Labaik, ridden by Jack Kennedy, beat Melon, the 3-1 joint‑favourite, by two-and-a-quarter lengths.
Labaik had refused to race on two of his previous starts and decided to join his most recent outing before Tuesday only after giving his opponents a huge head start. He was beaten more than 100 lengths as a result. It was fortunate Kennedy did not give up, because a third straight refusal would have had Labaik banned from racing altogether.
“We’ve never made a secret about how good we thought the horse was,” Gordon Elliott, Labaik’s trainer, said. “But I wanted to send him to Naas on Sunday rather than face the embarrassment of coming here and having him not jump off.
“I haven’t a horse to work with him in the yard, he’s a machine of a horse. If he never jumps off again, it doesn’t matter.”
Elliott finished the day with a treble and he is the 8-11 favourite with Bet365 to finish the week as the leading trainer. Henderson is a 9-4 chance while Mullins, who drew a blank on the opening card, is out to 3-1 third‑favourite having started Tuesday afternoon as an odds-on chance.
