A REAL GENTLEMAN

BY

GENTLEMAN de Mee should take a successful first step on the road to the Queen Mother Champion Chase by landing the Grade 3 Barberstown Castle Poplar Square Chase as National Hunt action returns to Naas today.

Trained for J P Mcmanus by Willie Mullins, this six-year-old Saint Des Saints gelding, successful once over hurdles, has won three of his five starts over fences and made impressive progress through the ranks last spring to emerge as a high-class two-miler.

The selection made it third-time-lucky over fences when landing a ‘beginners’ at Thurles last February, justifying 1/2 favouritism and bolting-up by no less than 34 lengths.

Gentleman de Mee then stepped in to Grade 3 company in the Flyingbolt at Navan in early March, slamming Grange Walk by 16 lengths.

But it was his performance in the Grade 1 Maghull Novice Chase in Aintree which stamped this Closutton gelding as a bit special as he ended the winning sequence of

Edwardstone, who had previously triumphed twice in Grade 2 company and twice at Grade 1 level, including a convincing win in the Arkle at Cheltenham.

Admittedly, Edwardstone might have been below his best at Aintree. But Gentleman de Mee beat him, fair and square, by four and half lengths.

Now rated 164, Gentleman de Mee must concede weight to his rivals today, notably 9lb. to the talented but slightly enigmatic Coeur Sublime, who ended his season by going down by a head to Blue Lord in the Grade 1 Barberstown Castle Novice Chase at the Punchestown festival.

Earlier, Gordon Elliott’s Fil Dor will face a similar task, conceding weight to a small bunch of rivals, particularly Boodles winner Brazil (inset), in the Fishery Lane 4-Y-0 Hurdle.

A three-time winner over hurdles, this grey chased home top juvenile Vauban in Grade 1 contests at Leopardstown, Cheltenham (the Triumph) and Punchestown last season and has an official mark of 147.

Rumoured to be set for a career over fences, sooner rather than later, he is rated just 5lb. above Brazil, who has a fitness edge, having chased home the exciting Champ Kiely in a Grade 3 at Tipperary last month, but must give that rival 9lb. here.

That said, his overall form is superior to Brazil’s and, on that basis, he gets the vote.

Later, Elliott’s Three Stripe Life, a Grade 1-winning novice hurdler at Aintree and last seen when third to State Man at Punchestown, is difficult to oppose on his chasing debut in the Mongey Communications Beginners Chas

While the Mags Mullins-trained Wellington Hill, narrow winner of a maiden hurdle at Gowran Park and open to plenty of improvement, appeals, each-way, in the Brown Lad Handicap Hurdle.