Willie Mullins saddled two more Grade One winners here on Saturday in his pursuit of the jump trainers’ championship, but was reminded too that he has not yet cornered the market in outstanding National Hunt performers, as Thistlecrack recorded a brilliant success in the Liverpool Stayers’ Hurdle.
Tom Scudamore set out to make all the running on the 2-7 favourite and with the exception of a slight mistake at the second-last, horse and rider cruised to victory just as smoothly as they had in the World Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival last month. “I’ve had harder days walking the dog,” Scudamore said afterwards, and Colin Tizzard, Thistlecrack’s trainer, must now decide whether to leave the eight-year-old in a division he completely dominates, or steer him towards a chasing campaign next season with the Cheltenham Gold Cup as the ultimate aim.
“He’s head and shoulders above the rest of them,” Tizzard said. “I thought he looked better again today. He never came off the bridle. He’s so good at this discipline, so brilliant, but he looks like he’d jump a fence as well and the biggest race in the country is the Gold Cup. That would be a draw, no doubt. If we go, we’ve got to go nearly now. The more he wins so easily like that, I don’t know if it makes it easier or harder [to decide].”
Thistlecrack is already the 10-1 third-favourite for next year’s Gold Cup without jumping a fence in public, in a market headed by this season’s winner, Don Cossack.
Yorkhill also added a Grade One victory at Aintree to his Cheltenham success in the Neptune Novice Hurdle, but was forced to dig a little deeper than expected on the way to a two-and-a-quarter-length defeat of Le Prezien in the Mersey Novice Hurdle.
Paul Townend replaced the injured Ruby Walsh aboard Yorkhill, who pulled hard for his head in the early stages and tugged his way to the front with nearly a mile still to run. The 30-100 favourite was then clumsy over the second last, and took a stride or two to respond when Townend asked for a final effort with half a furlong to run.
“Paul had a horrible ride,” Mullins said. “I think we’ll put a different nose band on the horse next time. He was just too free and there were not enough other horses in the race to give him cover. I was amazed that after pulling so hard he still won. He must have a huge engine.
“He looks Champion Hurdle material, but he could easily go novice chasing next season. We’d rather go Champion Hurdle or Arkle Trophy [over fences] than the World Hurdle. When Ruby got off him after winning at Cheltenham, he said: ‘This horse could win the Arkle with his mouth open.’”
Yorkhill remains the 3-1 favourite for the Arkle Trophy next March, while he can also be backed at 10-1 for the Champion Hurdle. Townend completed a short-priced Grade One double when Douvan, this year’s Arkle winner, effortlessly extended his unbeaten run since joining the Mullins yard to nine races, including five starts over fences this season.
Douvan has started at odds-against only once during his winning run, and was again a short-priced favourite at 2-13. He cantered home 14 lengths clear of The Game Changer, but while it looked like an exercise gallop, Mullins will now wait before deciding whether to run Douvan again this season, at Punchestown later this month.
“It’s hard for Paul getting up on him for the first time in a race like that, and knowing that there was a frontrunner there that was going to take them on,” Mullins said. “He had to try and balance it out and he did it very well. Paul said that when he gave him an inch of rein, he couldn’t believe how much he just lengthened his stride and breezed into the lead. I’d love to bring him to Punchestown, but we’ll see whether it’s too close. It might not be fair on him, but at the moment, everything is open.”
