CRAZY GOOD!
‘Mad’ Mullins steers Kemboy to victory
WILLIE Mullins hailed the ‘madness’ of his nephew, David, as Kemboy claimed a stunning success in the €175,000 Savills Chase at Leopardstown yesterday.
The champion trainer couldn’t believe his eyes as Kemboy surged to the front under Mullins with a circuit to go.
‘I thought to myself, “This guy (David) is mad”. I felt I’d be halfway along the M50 as soon as the race was over, as I couldn’t see Kemboy winning.’
Instead, Mullins was giving interviews and dreaming of Gold Cup glory after Kemboy pulled away from a high-class field following ‘a very brave ride’ from his nephew.
‘It was a welcome win as a few of our horses have appeared to lack a little fitness this week. I don’t know why,’ he said.
WILLIE MULLINS was using language almost as blue as Kemboy’s silks when David Mullins let the handbrake off and gunned the six-year-old to the front with a circuit to go in the Savills Chase at Leopardstown yesterday.
A few minutes later, Mullins was hailing his nephew’s nous as Kemboy (8/1) kicked on to win the first prize of €103,250 by a street and catapult into the Gold Cup frame.
‘When David went ahead passing the stands, I couldn’t get enough curses into a sentence! I thought, “This guy is mad”.
‘He said the pace had slowed and decided to let him on, let him jump. And he was right.’
Beforehand, Mullins had advised his nephew there was money down to sixth place but after this seven-anda-half-length win over Monalee, he knows he has a live contender for the Gold Cup — a race in which he’s saddled the runner-up no fewer than six times since 2000.
‘To see him (Kemboy) sprinting after the last was the sign of a really good horse,’ said Mullins, who withdrew Kemboy from the Ladbrokes Trophy last month over concerns with the ground and weight.
‘If he can improve all the way to March we’ll be at Cheltenham for the Gold Cup and who knows what might happen?’
As for the canny jockey, he felt he had no choice but to press on.
‘The plan wasn’t to make it, it was to drop in and see what happens. We didn’t know if he was good enough or had the experience,’ he said.
‘But they were going no pace, there was no other way of doing it only let him rock. He was jumping too well to be taking him back there. He was burning up energy and we weren’t making any ground, so it didn’t make sense not to go on.’
‘I think Monalee got to my girths at second last, and I was able to sit around the bend. He showed he was a good horse to keep him on the bridle, then he’s done it up to the line.’
Is the six-year-old a genuine Gold Cup contender? ‘Of course. He’s after beating a few good contenders today anyway.’
The 11 runners were almost bunched heading to the last fence, where the grey Disko suffered a fatal fall, but by the post Kemboy had spread-eagled the field.
After the eclipse of Might Bite in the King George, and with Presenting Percy under wraps at Pat Kelly’s yard, his course form is as solid as any Gold Cup contender.
Earlier, there was almost as big a cheer for the sight of Faugheen clambering to his feet as there was for Apple’s Jade shimmering brilliance in victory in the Squared Financial Christmas Hurdle.
Ruby Walsh was stooped over Faugheen and racegoers feared the worst after his fall at the second last. ‘Faugheen is a little sore but otherwise he’s fine,’ reported Mullins.
Just as ‘The Machine’ ruled the two-mile hurdling division at his peak, so Apple’s Jade is the lady of the longer distances, as evidenced by her 26-length stroll to victory in this three-miler.
‘Jack (Kennedy) gave her a squeeze at the second last and she changed gears. She’s still only six, hard to believe all she’s done. She’s a bit of a lady at home, she’s clearly the boss,’
said trainer Gordon Elliott, who was overdue a big Festival winner.
The Irish Champion Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival on February 2-3 is the next target for Apple’s Jade with Elliott adamant the Cheltenham equivalent is not on the radar.
‘She’ll probably come back here for the Irish Champion Hurdle as she needs to race more but at Cheltenham, she’ll go in either the Mares’ Hurdle or the Stayers,’ he said.
Owner Michael O’Leary flatly rejected the notion of letting Apple’s Jade take on stablemate Samcro over two miles at the Festival. ‘She’d be getting nosebleeds against Samcro over that trip,’ he said. ‘If she’s fit and well, we’ll go for the Mares’ Hurdle.’
Asked where he was in a scale of one to 10 regarding the Stayers Hurdle, O’Leary said, ‘I’d be a three and a half, maybe a four.’
At six, Apple’s Jade has won nine Grade One races, seven of them since her exit from the Mullins yard in September 2017 in a row over training fees.
Elliott accepted he was ‘lucky’ when Gun Digger was last man standing under Kennedy in the Ballymaloe Foods Beginners Chase. Approaching the last, Ruby Walsh was closing on Bacardys only to capsize on landing.
‘We were lucky. Ruby gave his horse a peach of a ride only to slip up at the last,’ said Elliott.
A stumble after the last was costly for leader Diol Ker as Malinas Jack, a spare ride for Barry Geraghty, pounced in the opening Sky Sports Maiden Hurdle for in-form Henry De Bromhead.
While Rachael Blackmore’s 68th winner of the season was hard-earned as she reminded Cuneo who was the boss in the Pertemps Network Handicap Hurdle, a seventh winner of the week for De Bromhead.