The phrase "who'd be a handicapper" leapt to mind almost as quickly as Mallowney and Davy Russell leaped the Fairyhouse fences after a supposedly ultra-competitive €100,000 feature turned into a 10-length procession.
Mallowney ultimately won the Underwriting Exchange Dan Moore Memorial Chase so easily that he looked value for twice or maybe even three times his winning margin over the supposedly well-handicapped 15-8 favourite, Bright New Dawn.
The latter had 8lbs in hand of official ratings, not to mention almost 10 lengths in hand of Mallowney from their clash at Christmas. But rarely have the maddening fluctuations of weighing up horses been so vividly illustrated than by this big-race victory.
"He never runs a bad race but he was exceptional today," said Mallowney's trainer, Tim Doyle. "They were Grade 2 horses there and he beat them at his ease. Davy said he felt electric. It was his idea to ride him closer to the pace, and he got it absolutely right. It's a grand pot to win."
Five-ride win
Russell certainly manages to get a tune out of the 9-year old, owned by controversial Tipperary TD
Michael Lowry
. The former champion jockey’s five- ride record on the horse now boasts three wins and two seconds.
Still, Mallowney was hardly the unexposed “springer” suggested buy the spectacular visual impression he left in his most valuable career success to date. Noel O’Brien, Ireland’s hugely respected senior National Hunt handicapper, hardly gave a post-race impression of a man disillusioned with his job.
“These are the vagaries of racing,” O’Brien said. “Handicappers like going back and coming up with reasons for everything, but in this case there is evidence in the formbook.
“This horse was beaten by less than four lengths by Road To Riches here last April. And at Cork [Hilly Way Chase] in December, if you’d stopped the race at the second last he looked all over the winner. And if he’d won that day, beating Twinlight and the others, you would have said he was a Grade 1 horse.
“Now, since then he has finished behind Bright New Dawn at Leopardstown,” O’Brien said. “But the fact remains he has shown form, which suggested he was capable of winning a race like this. Naturally I would have preferred it to happen in a conditions race rather than a handicap, but it happens like that. Everything fell his way today on ground where nothing is coming from behind.”
In that context, it looks significant the handicapper’s initial instinct is not to lean too heavily on the penalties. So a 12lb hike to a 160 rating looks in the offing for Mallowney, something which won’t deflect Doyle from his next target – the Newlands Chase at Naas next month – or from a disinclination to travel across the Irish Sea.
"I don't think we'll go to Cheltenham with him," Doyle said. "If he goes across at all, it might be Aintree. But his main aim will be Punchestown [the Boylesports Champion Chase]. I thought Bright New Dawn would have the beating of him but he was great today."
Au Quart heats up
Willie Mullins
hadn’t seen anything of note from Au Quart De Tour until a nice bit of work earlier in the week. The former point-to-point winner is now a 7-1 favourite in some lists for the Weatherbys Champion Bumper after he beat Tuzo in the finale.
“He hadn’t been showing me anything up to this week, but now that he’s turned a corner he should improve,” said Mullins, who had earlier won the Beginners Chase with Florishwells D’ete.
“Other trainers in the race told me their horses were nice and to do that off a slow pace; I’m very happy with him.”
Tony McCoy made his Fairyhouse trip pay off by winning on Florishwells D’ete. But he had to settle for second in the second of the maiden hurdles as JP McManus’s first-string, Oscar Knight, came up short of the 10-1 second-string, Rathpatrick.
It was a first win for McManus and trainer Eoin Griffin, whose father Sean bred the horse.
“He has taken time to learn to relax, but the penny is staring to drop,” Griffin said. “The softer the ground the better for him, and a step up in trip will suit.”
The odds-on, Champagne James, never got closer to winning the novice chase than the three parts of a length he was eventually beaten by Dromnea.
