Nolan staff have 50,000 reasons to cheer on Friday
PAUL NOLAN’S stable has been having a revival in fortunes in the past couple of seasons, and he goes to Cheltenham with several live prospects, but the one everyone in the Toberona, Davidstown, yard will be cheering on is Latest Exhibition in the Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle on Friday, the final day. And there are 50,000 reasons for this!
Latest Exhibition won the Grade 1 Nathaniel Lacy and Partners novice hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown on February 1 by two lengths under Bryan Cooper.
Not only did they collect nearly €90,000 that day, but they are in line to pick up a €50k bonus if they can follow up in any race at Cheltenham.
That bonus is specifically for the stable staff, so they will have every reason to urge on Cooper and the horse on Friday.
And there are not that many of them to share it out as Nolan runs a tight operation. He has five permanent staff and five more who work for him in the mornings.
It is very much a Nolan family enterprise at Toberona, with Paul’s brother, James, assisting in the training, and wife Catherine and son Barry are also involved, along with his sisters, Imelda and Mairéad, while his dad, Jimmy, is always there to advise.
Latest Exhibition has every chance of pulling it off and is among the favourites for the Albert Bartlett (6/1) having compiled three wins and a second this season.
His latest Leopardstown win announced the return of Nolan to the big time as this was his first Grade 1 success for six years.
And this would be a real Wexford success as the seven-year-old son of Oscar was bred by racing stalwart, Jim Mernagh, at his Coolamurray Stud, not far from Nolan’s yard.
There were some big offers for the horse after he beat Andy Dufresne in a Grade 2 at Navan, but Mernagh and a group of long-term Nolan supporters like John Brennan, Colm Browne and Jim Coffey came together to form the Toberona Partnership and ensure that the horse stayed put and turns out in the purple and gold silks.
It would also be a great day for jockey Bryan Cooper who had the racing world at his young feet just a few years ago, his eight Festival winners including Don Cossack in the Gold Cup.
His career fell into a bit of a hole when he lost the retained rider’s job with Gigginstown, and his association with the
Nolan yard has been key to him regaining a foothold in the top fight.
The horse will be tackling his longest distance when going over three miles on Friday but Nolan has no worries.
‘Looking at the way he races, I think three miles will be the making of him as his stamina has been his strong point.’
Nolan will also be running Discorama (10/1) which has been placed at the Festival for the previous two years
His prolonged duel last year under Barry O’Neill which saw him give way by half a length to La Breuil and Jamie Codd in the National Hunt Chase was one of the meeting’s best finishes.
Nolan is hopeful rather than optimistic for the Ultima Handicap Chase over three miles and a furlong this Tuesday afternoon. ‘He’s had a wind op and we hope he can
come back to a bit of better form.’
However, the horse has been well backed into 6/1.
Those two and the mare, La Feline, will be ridden by Cooper, but Barry Geraghty or Mark Walsh will be on the JP McManus-owned Fitzhenry in another of the handicaps.
He has a fair bit of form, coming second in this season’s hugely competitive Paddy Power and Troytown chases, collecting a tidy €57,000. He must have a good eachway chance.
Paul has already won twice at Cheltenham, with Dabiroun giving Nina Carberry her first Festival win in 2005, and Noble Prince under A.P. McCoy in the Jewson Novices Chase in 2011.
Here’s hoping that nine-year gap will be bridged this week.