The novice hurdle winners on the first two days at Cheltenham’s Festival meeting last season will be in action within 20 minutes of each other on Friday afternoon and defeat for either would be a painful setback for their supporters. Faugheen, who ran away with the Neptune Novice Hurdle in March, is quoted at around 4-9 to win the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton, while Vautour, who was equally impressive in the Supreme Novice Hurdle, will be shorter still when he lines up for the Racing Post Novice Chase at Leopardstown.
The two horses share a great deal in terms of the ease of their victories to date, but little else prior to their arrival at the Willie Mullins stable. Faugheen is a classic product of Irish breeding for the jumping field who started his career as a point-to-pointer, while Vautour is French-bred and had his early outings at Pau and Auteuil when trained by Guillaume Macaire.
Either or both could have graduated to fences this season, but fate seemed to intervene back in April when Vautour failed a late fitness test for the two-mile Champion Novice Hurdle at Punchestown and Faugheen took his place to record a deeply impressive 12-length success. Even Mullins seemed a little taken aback by the ease of his victory and Faugheen has been at the top of the market for the Champion Hurdle in March ever since.
Like his stablemate Champagne Fever, the winner of the Supreme Novice Hurdle in 2013 and the second-favourite for Friday’s King George, it was Vautour who moved straight from novice hurdles to chases, maintaining his unbeaten record since his move to join Mullins when he beat 15 opponents at Navan last month. Clarcam, eight lengths adrift in second place and a winner since, re-opposes but it will be a bitter disappointment if Vautour’s winning streak stops at six.
“Vautour was awesome in Navan first time over fences, but when he won the Supreme he jumped those hurdles without making any mistake,” Mullins said this week. “He looked like he was on a different set of rails.
“I thought Ruby was going a mad pace [in the Supreme] but Ruby has this clock in his head and he knew he was going a pace he was happy with, but the others were struggling and couldn’t keep it up. He was foot-perfect at every hurdle.
“It is lovely to watch horses stand off all the time but you need a horse that has to be able to shorten up and put in a quick one when they are wrong. I think he’s ready for anything. I think he looks the part.”
The ante-post Festival betting already suggests that Mullins will dominate the opening day at Cheltenham on 10 March. Four of the seven events on the card have Grade One status following the upgrade of the OLBG Mares’ Hurdle from Grade Two level, and Mullins currently has the favourite for all four, including Faugheen in the Champion Hurdle and Vautour, co-favourite with his stablemate Un De Sceaux, in the Arkle.
Yet Mullins has often said that in terms of raw ability, physique and scope, he feels Vautour may have more to offer than any horse in his yard. While much of the attention will be on events at Kempton on Friday, Vautour’s second start over fences could prove to be equally significant.
