Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
A STATE OF PERFECTION
Man can upstage previous winners
EXCITING five-year-old State Man might upstage stable-companions and previous winners Sharjah and Saldier, plus two other rivals, in the Grade 1 Unibet Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown tomorrow.
Willie Mullins has won 10 of the last 11 renewals of the Morgiana, run this year in memory of Michael Rafferty (@Anaglogsdaughter), and will saddle three of the five runners tomorrow.
Six-time Grade 1 winner Sharjah, who won this prize in 2018 and last year, 2019 scorer Saldier and State Man, a progressive novice last season and regarded as a potential Champion Hurdle candidate.
Having raced only once in
France, finishing runner-up to September’s Kerry National winner Busselton, State Man started favourite for his Irish debut at Leopardstown last Christmas and looked poised to triumph when crashing two from home.
He bounced back to justify 1/7 favouritism in a weak maiden hurdle at Limerick six weeks later, scoring with ease.
Mullins then pitched the Doctor Dino gelding into handicap company in Cheltenham’s County Hurdle and, ridden with confidence by Paul Townend, he cruised into contention before seeing off First Street and Colonel Mustard off a mark of 141.
Stepped up to almost two and a half miles, State Man followed-up by landing the Grade 1 Alanna Homes Champion Novice Hurdle here in April, brushing aside Flame Bearer and Three Stripe Life and announcing himself as a really exciting prospect.
He’ll face a much tougher task tomorrow. But, rated just 3lb below Sharjah, he has massive potential and is expected to take another significant step up the ladder.
Sharjah, a four-time winner of the Matheson Hurdle at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting, sets the standard, but raced only twice last season – winning this event and the Matheson.
He hasn’t run for 11 months but his overall form, notably his six Grade 1 wins and two runner-up posts in the Champion Hurdle, behind Epatante and Honeysuckle respectively – is rock-solid.
But Sharjah is an eight-yearold and might be vulnerable to his younger rival, State Man, in a field which also features the third Mullins runner, Saldier (won in 2019), Gordon Elliott’s Teahupoo, a five-time hurdle winner and rated just 1lb below State Man, and the 147-rated Jesse Evans.
The Gordon Elliott-trained Minella Crooner, runner-up in a Grade 1 at Leopardstown in February before being pulled up in the Albert Bartlett, is an interesting chasing recruit in the earlier Grade 2 Liam & Valerie Brennan Novice Chase.
But Noel Meade’s (inset) pair, Idas Boy and Thedevilscoachman, might put their experience to good use against him.
And I’ll go for the value with Idas Boy, successful on his fencing bow in Cork before failing by a half-length to 154-rated El Barra in a Grade 3 on the same track two weeks ago.