GRAND SLAM
Mullins confident Chacun Pour Soi can complete his Festival collection
WILLIE Mullins remains confident Chacun Pour Soi can give him victory in the one Cheltenham Festival feature race he has yet to win.
The most successful trainer in Cheltenham Festival history, Mullins has never won the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase, the Grade One feature on day two of the meeting. And having started this year’s Festival with an odds-on favourite – Appreciate It – winning in style, Mullins is confident he can do something similar in the Champion Chase.
Chacun Pour Soi will be making his Cheltenham debut but the nine-year-old arrives at Prestbury Park as an odds-on favourite after some fine wins in his homeland this season.
The County Carlow handler, who has also declared Cilaos Emery, said: “It would be huge for the stable and everyone here to get that (Champion Chase) win and have all the Championship races at the Cheltenham Festival.
“When we started off we just wanted a runner and then a winner, not dreaming we could be in the position we’re in today.
“But it’s something we’ve been lucky with and I’d love to do it.
“Hopefully he will give us a chance to try and put that away. He’s (been) in great form since Leopardstown and does everything right at home, so fingers crossed.
“It hurts, but at Cheltenham, every 35 minutes it’s a new page and you don’t really get to think about it or for it to sink in and, thankfully, we had a good Cheltenham last year, so it’s history.
“He had his troubles early on in his career but now everything has settled down he just goes up the gallop every morning and does his
work. We want to get there and see what he can do at Cheltenham – can he be as good as at
Leopardstown? He is one of the ones if you had to pick the top five or six travelling over, you’d say he is one that you are really hoping can bring his ‘A’ game there.”
With 2019 winner Altior out of the race through injury, the home team’s challenge to Mullins will come from Dan Skelton’s Nube Negra – who beat Nicky Henderson’s former two-mile star at Kempton over Christmas.
Defending champion Politologue is also back for more for trainer Paul Nicholls, who has won the race a joint record six times.
APPRECIATE It routed the field to land a superb victory in the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.
Willie Mullins’ young star, sent off the hot 8-11 favourite, ran out a widemargin winner to give his trainer a record seventh victory in the Grade One contest.
Under Paul Townend, the six-year-old was always travelling well off the leader For Pleasure. And on the turn for home, Appreciate It came through stylishly, sauntering home by 24 lengths from fellow Irish raider, the Henry De Bromhead-trained Ballyadam (6-1). For Pleasure (40-1) stayed on to be third.
Mullins will send Appreciate It to the Punchestown Festival next month, before deciding whether he will stay over hurdles next season or begin a novice chasing career.
It may be the changing of the guard at Nicky Henderson’s Seven Barrows stable as Shishkin sauntered to victory in the Sporting Life Arkle Challenge Trophy.
With previous two-mile chasing star Altior out of the today’s Queen Mother Champion Chase due to injury, stablemate Shishkin put down a marker for next year’s Grade One feature with a peerless performance.
Sent off a warm 4-9 favourite, the seven-year-old landed a seventh straight victory and is now 5-2 for next year’s Champion Chase with Coral and William Hill.
Shiskin came home by 12 lengths, with Eldorado Allen staying on for second ahead of Captain Guinness and Allmankind.
A delighted Henderson said: “We’d always hoped (to win like that), but you never expect. We knew there was going to be plenty of pace, I didn’t know the other horse (Captain Guinness) would take him (Allmankind) on as well. But he’s got a high cruising speed and just sat on their tails.
“He came wide and had plenty of space, but he was impressive the way he came up the hill.”
Vintage Clouds finally won the Ultima Handicap Chase at the fifth attempt when he ran out a shock 28-1 victor in the 3m 2f contest.
Five of those in the line-up are also entered in the Randox Grand National at Aintree Racecourse on April 10, but this time not the winner.
The nearest Aintree hopeful was Milan Native – now trained by Denise Foster, who has taken over the banned Gordon Elliott’s stable – who finished well back in ninth.
But it was the Grand Nationalwinning team of trainer Sue Smith and jockey Ryan Mania – who landed the Aintree showpiece in 2013 with Auroras Encore – who came out on top with 11-year-old Vintage Clouds.
The grey was always near the head of affairs with National entrant Pym and Alnadam.
Owned by Trevor Hemmings, who will bid for a record fourth Grand National win with favourite Cloth Cap next month, Vintage Clouds went one better than when second in the Ultima in 2019, scoring by five-and-ahalf lengths from 10-3 favourite Happygolucky.
Harriet Graham’s Aye Right (11-2) was again placed in another top staying chase, when finishing a further two-and-a-half lengths back in third, with the Venetia Williamstrained Cepage (14-1) fourth.
It was a fine victory by Smith’s grey, who jumped superbly and finally grabbed a deserved success in the Ultima.
After being told he was a Cheltenham Festival winner, Mania said: “I’ll be honest, I never ever thought I’d hear those words mentioned.”