Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
VALUE SCOPE’S GOT A 20-1 SHOT AT SANDOWN:
APPLE’S JADE should make a bold bid to register her fifth Grade 1 success in the Irish Stallion Farms Mares Champion Hurdle on the final day of the Punchestown Festival. Of course, on the final day of the 2016-2017 season, new champions will be crowned, with the battle for the trainer’s championship, between nine-times champion Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott, seeking a first crown, going down to the wire. Jamie Codd will be crowned champion amateur for the first time – following a lengthy tussle with Patrick Mullins, while, after a tremendous season, Rachael Blackmore, right, will become the first female conditional champion. On the track, and back to the scene of her impressive defeat of Let’s Dance in the juvenile championship race last year, Apple’s Jade is undoubtedly the one to beat in the mares race. A dual Grade 1 winner as a juvenile, Gordon Elliott’s charge has won both the Hatton’s Grace (ending Vroum Vroum Mag’s unbeaten record) and Cheltenham’s OLBG Mares Hurdle, at the top level, this season. In the Cheltenham race, she beat Vroum Vroum Mag and Limini, which had beaten her in her ‘prep’ outing on this track. A five-year-old, open to further improvement, Apple’s Jade is rated 154 and is the horse to beat. But her supporters will be worried, not just by the fact Mullins, seeking a fifth successive win in the race, runs Augusta Kate, conqueror of Let’s Dance in a Grade 1 mares novice at Fairyhouse last week. But the interesting aspect of the Mullins challenge is the fact Ruby Walsh has opted to ride the unexposed Karalee instead, on the back of her smooth, recent success in Limerick, her first outing since landing her maiden in Killarney in May 2015. If she is superior to 146-rated Augusta Kate, and riding arrangements suggest she is, Ruby’s mount might be capable of shaking-up Apple’s Jade. The AES Champion 4-Y-0 Hurdle could also develop into a head-tohead between the Mullins and Elliott camps, with Bapaume and Mega Fortune leading their respective challenges. The leading fancies were separated by just a short-head when filling second and third spots behind the classy Defi Du Seuil in the Triumph at Cheltenham, with Bapaume enjoying that narrow advantage. In their previous clash, in Leopardstown’s Spring Juvenile Hurdle, Mega Fortune had come out on top, winning by three and a half lengths. And, in their previous clash, at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting, Bapaume triumphed, with Mega Fortune third. Joseph O’brien’s Landofhopeandglory also ties in with the leading fancies on form. And, with ground conditions expected to suit Bapaume better, the Mullins runner gets the vote.