Naas apparently has a longstanding reputation as “a punters’ graveyard”, which might have little grounding in reality but certainly proved apt when the course staged its first Grade One jumps race on Sunday. The Lawlor’s Hotel Novice Hurdle produced a 33-1 winner in McKinley, whose trainer, Willie Mullins, has now landed seven of the 13 top-class races run in Ireland this jumps season.
Mullins was supposed to win this race, if at all, with Tell Us More, sent off the 4-5 favourite, who tried to make all but was worn down by his stablemate on the run-in. McKinley, ridden by Paul Townend, had appeared to be the third-string for both his trainer and his owners, Michael O’Leary’s Gigginstown House Stud.
“This fellow is improving all the time, but I didn’t think he had improved that much,” Mullins said. “Paul gave him a great ride. The improvement I’ve seen in his homework is vindicated.
“Tell Us More jumped fantastic and raced great. He probably had to do all the donkey work and that probably just told. He beat off Free Expression, the one that we thought would jump and stay as well as anything.
“It’s possible McKinley’s Flat-race experience might have paid off. Tell Us More had three races where he didn’t have to fight or battle and inexperience might have beaten him.”
McKinley and Tell Us More, separated by three parts of a length at the line, may meet again next month in Leopardstown’s Deloitte Hurdle. They are then likely to have targets at the Cheltenham Festival but Mullins, as usual, is reluctant to specify which targets they will be.
Tell Us More had been 7-1 favourite for the Neptune Novice Hurdle until this reverse but is now out to 12-1, behind his stablemate, Shaneshill. McKinley is 25-1 for that race.
Tony McCoy expressed disappointment in his third-placed mount, Free Expression, who, like Tell Us More, had been previously unbeaten. “I thought, off the bend, he might pick up a bit more,” the jockey said. “He finished off his race but tended to lean in behind, for whatever reason. Hopefully there is a reason.”
L’Ami Serge, who won a Grade One novice hurdle at Sandown on Saturday, may be given a racecourse gallop next month on his way to the Supreme Hurdle, a spokesman for his owner said. “The races he’s run in seem to have fallen apart from two out and you just question the form, but he keeps doing it and he is quite good,” said Anthony Bromley, the bloodstock agent who bought the horse in France.
Bromley added that Peace And Co, who carries the same colours of Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, will go to Cheltenham a fortnight on Saturday for a trial race for the Festival’s Triumph Hurdle, for which he is currently the 3-1 favourite. “A lot will depend on how good his performance is that day as to whether he goes for the Triumph Hurdle or not. You want to see a horse the jockey can ride with such restraint and produce his turn of foot. I wouldn’t want to see him pulling.”
