Victory earns Road Respect
YORKHILL’S unbeaten record over fences came to an end when he threw away the Ryanair Gold Cup Novice Chase at Fairyhouse.
Despite jumping violently to the left, he looked like making all the running as the field straightened up for home. The Willie Mullins-trained seven-year-old – winner of the JLT Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham – negotiated the second-last fine and traded at 1-25 between jumps.
Calamity struck when he took a long look at the final obstacle, where he almost ran into the wing, before taking it clumsily. That let in Road To Respect, who was left in front in the hands of Bryan Cooper on the run to line. Yorkhill rallied for Ruby Walsh and closed with every stride, but the post came just in time for the Noel Meade-trained winner.
Road To Respect was himself a Cheltenham victor having claimed the Brown Advisory & Merriebelle Stable Plate Handicap Chase, and Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary, who owns the winner under his Gigginstown House stud banner, said: “He was great. Clearly the
best horse finished second, but you have to jump them. Usually we struggle to win any of these Ryanair-sponsored races – normally Willie or JP McManus win them all – so it’s very nice.
“I think Noel has brought him on incredibly well this year. His run at Cheltenham was fantastic. He is very closely related to Road To Riches, so I’d say clearly good ground is the key to him and he got good ground in Cheltenham and he got good ground here today. Yorkhill is clearly the superior horse, but we are very happy to win one.”
Meade said: “We thought about running him in the (Irish) National. He worked on Wednesday and we THE SCOUT just thought he might need another week. If he’d worked better we might have run him in the National, but it’s all worked out great.
“Yorkhill did it all wrong and we benefited from that. He’s obviously a very good horse. We were hoping Willie’s horse would do that and he did. All is fair in love and war!”
Mullins earlier won the other Grade One with Augusta Kate. David Mullins drove her past her stablemate Let’s Dance on the runin to give Mullins snr a one-two in a race in which he had four runners.
Augusta Kate’s target main next year is likely to be the OLBG Mares’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. JP McMANUS can take the most valuable jump race in Ireland with Minella Foru in today’s BoyleSports Irish Grand National (5.00).
McManus, seeking a third success in the 500,000 chase at Fairyhouse, might not have 14 of the 30 runners – like Gigginstown – but he has three worthy contenders.
The other two are Oscar Knight and Shutthefrontdoor, successful in the 2014 race. Significantly, Barry Geraghty, McManus’s retained rider, has opted for Minella Foru.
Our Duke looks a worthy favourite following his second to Disko at Leopardstown. He is only a novice but he is trained by Jessica Harrington who is in tremendous form.