If Willie Mullins is to finally land that elusive Cheltenham Gold Cup this season then one woman who knows exactly what it takes to win steeplechasing’s ‘blue riband’ reckons it will be with the John Durkan winner, Djakadam.
Henrietta Knight was at Punchestown on book-signing duty and after Dakajadam landed his first Grade 1 by a dozen lengths Best Mate’s trainer left Mullins in no doubt about what his best Gold Cup chance is.
“Henrietta says he’ll win the Gold Cup, so I’ll just quote her!” grinned Ireland’s champion trainer who saddled a 6-1 three-timer on the day.
It wasn’t like Knight was alone in being impressed by the big-race winner. The horse who became Mullins’s fifth Gold Cup runner up when chasing home Coneygree last March was faultless on his first start of the new season despite causing his trainer some anxiety earlier in the week.
“I wasn’t happy with him. He just wasn’t right. And if this race was in England he wouldn’t have run. But because Punchestown is our home track we could leave a final decision until this morning. So considering the way he was, I’m absolutely delighted with him. It was some performance,” Mullins said.
It hardly keeps Djakadam awake at night but typically even on the day of his greatest career success to date he had to compete for attention with the return to action of another Rich Ricci owned star.
Pont Alexandere had been the apple of Mullins’s eye during a novice hurdle campaign which ended with a surprise Cheltenham defeat in 2013. Kept on the sidelines through injury for almost 1,000 days, he was spectacular on his first start over fences, provoking more unadorned admiration from his trainer.
It was enough to provoke 10-1 RSA quotes and even half-serious queries about Pont Alexandre making up for lost time this season in the Gold Cup, to which Mullins responded cautiously, while still managing to compare the horse’s raw ability to Coneygree.
However with a handful of outstanding senior candidates already in his care, including Vautour and Saturday’s Aintree winner Don Poli, it’s not like Mullins is short of Gold Cup ammunition .
If It might be stretching things to label it a ‘hoodoo’ but Mullins makes no secret that Cheltenham’s feature is the prize he covets most and his immediate Christmas chore will involve dividing up his enviable collection of contenders between Kempton’s King George and Leopardstown’s Lexus.
Even before this it seemed Djakadam’s fate to operate in the shadow of Vautour & Co but while he mightn’t be flashy he looked hugely effective again in the Durkan, making all under Ruby Walsh, and leading home a Mullins 1-2 with Valseur Lido in second.
“You’d imagine Vautour will go to the King George and Djakadam to the Lexus but we’ll see,” said Walsh afterwards. “The Lexus could turn into a hell of a race, especially if Coneygree comes over.”
Don Poli is another Closutton inmate to have captured the public imagination more than Djakadam but most bookmakers immediately cut the Durkan winner to 8-1 to go one better in the 2016 Gold Cup. Not surprisingly though Mullins insisted no definite plans are in place for his next start.
If anyone beats the trainer to Pont Alexandre’s legs in the morning it will be Walsh who didn’t bother to try and disguise his enthusiasm for the horse.
“He’s a horse with unbelievable potential,” the champion jockey said after the Beginners Chase. “He’s a gorgeous horse with a serious engine. Keeping the wheels under him will be the big thing.”
Yorkhill looks another bursting with potential and is already a 7-1 favourite in some lists for the Neptune at Cheltenham after comfortably winning on his jumping debut.
“He was a horse we thought a fair bit of as a bumper horse last year. He’s quite raw, so I would imagine he’ll improve a good bit for the experience,” Walsh reported.
A Mullins four-timer was just foiled in the bumper when Blow By Blow was caught in the closing stages by the Nina Carberry ridden Tamlough Boy while Barry Geraghty turned what looked a hopeless cause before the straight into a victory on A Great View in the conditions hurdle.
Punchestown results
12.05: 1st. A Great View (JP McManus, BJ Geraghty), 2nd. Attribution (Gigginstown House, BJ Cooper), 3rd. Roman Gold (Gigginstown House, JW Kennedy), 4th. Neverushacon (David Reid Scott, RM Power).
12.40: 1st. Yorkhill (Andrea Wylie, R Walsh), 2nd. Road to Respect (Gigginstown House, BJ Cooper), 3rd. Mall Dini (Phillip J Reynolds, DN Russell), 4th. An Dearg Mor (CCR, DE Mullins).
1.15: 1st. Oscar Sam (Cooper Family, RM Power), 2nd. Woodford Island (TJ Doran, JW Kennedy), 3rd. Letter of Credit (No Credit, PT Enright), 4th. Jansoboy (Mad Plan Partnership, B Hayes).
1.50: 1st. Djakadam (S Ricci, R Walsh), 2nd. Valseur Lido (Gigginstown House, BJ Cooper), 3rd. Gilgamboa (JP McManus, BJ Geraghty), 4th. Flemenstar (Stephen Curran, KM Donoghue), 5th . Clarcam (Gigginstown House, DN Russell).
2.25: 1st. Pont Alexandre (S Ricci, R Walsh), 2nd. Balbir Du Mathan (Barry Connell, AP Heskin), 3rd. Monty’s Meadow (Hanford’s Chemist, DN Russell), 4th. Talbot Road (John Patrick Byrne, MP Walsh).
2.55: 1st. Sumos Novios (WJ Burke, RM Power), 2nd. Empire of Dirt (Gigginstown House, BJ Cooper), 3rd. Sizing Gold (Ann and Alan Potts, JJ Burke), 4th. Mister First (W hennessy, BR Dalton).
