FACILE WILL BE BACK TO HIS SUPREME BEST
BY
WILLIE MULLINS retains full faith in Facile Vega, despite his shock defeat in the Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown on Sunday.
Unbeaten in six previous starts in both bumpers and hurdles, including three Grade One strikes, Facile Vega was sent off the 4-9 favourite to add another top-level triumph to his tally at the Dublin Racing Festival.
However, after setting out to make all under Paul Townend, Facile Vega faded quickly in the straight to finish last of five behind stablemate Il Etait Temps, with Mullins pointing to his strong early pace as the reason for defeat.
He said: “I had resigned when I saw what was happening going past the winning post first time round. I said ‘unless he’s an absolute aeroplane, they can’t keep that up’.
“Someone said the time going to the fourth or fifth hurdle was a furlong quicker than the Irish Champion Hurdle – it was headless what went on.
“I was disappointed what happened, not that he was beaten as every horse gets beaten at some stage.”
Mullins (inset) feels Townend will not make the same mistake again and is backing Facile Vega to make amends in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, should he recover satisfactorily in time for next month’s Cheltenham Festival.
He said: “Paul knows himself and he’ll adjust things for the next day on the different horses that he rode. When you go to big races like that, you learn a lot about your horse and he’ll have all that sorted for the next day.
“It’s not a comment on Paul’s riding ability, it was just a decision he made on the day and it didn’t work out on the day. It’s just part of the job.
“It’s like a footballer going to goal and there’s a player on the right that he doesn’t see. It’s just a bad decision in a game and play moves on. Paul gets things right 99 per cent of the time.
“There’ll be plenty of pace in the Supreme Novices’ and I haven’t contemplated changing (plans) yet.
“I think at the moment we’re all set to go the way we planned, if the horse recovers from his race yesterday. He had a very, very hard race and it will take a fair bit of recovering from. We’ll need all the time we have.”
Impressive handicap winner Gaelic Warrior also holds a Supreme entry, but Mullins is leaning towards the two-mile-fivefurlong Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle with the five-year-old, who was beaten just a short head at the Festival last year.
Mullins said: “Gaelic Warrior was very impressive to win a handicap like that and I thought it was a great trial for maybe going for the Ballymore – that would look like the sort of race we might go for at the moment.”