Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
HERE’S JOHNNY
Tom’s charge knocking at the door
BY
AN early casualty on a recent trip to Cheltenham, Hey Johnny might recoup losses in the Glanbia Novice Handicap Hurdle in Gowran Park today.
Trained locally by Tom Mullins and a dual bumper winner at Ballinrobe and Punchestown, this five-year-old has triumphed once over flights and is open to plenty of improvement with excellent prospects here off a mark of 110.
Hey Johnny didn’t show a lot in maiden hurdles but shaped with plenty of promise on handicap debut at Punchestown, when third behind subsequent winner One Last Tango and One Cool Poet.
And he duly delivered next time, under a confident ride by his trainer’s son Charlie, winning a Clonmel handicap readily from one of today’s rivals Marelly.
Hey Johnny started joint-favourite for a novice handicap at Cheltenham two weeks ago but, off a British mark of 117, unshipped Charlie Mullins at the first in the race won by compatriot Contrapposto.
Danny Mullins, who rode the selection at Punchestown, is back on board today. And Hey Johnny is a confident choice to strike, unless Enchanted Magic, winner of his maiden hurdle at this track on debut for Eoin Doyle, is well-treated off 120 on his stable debut for Willie Mullins, who decided against launching Facile Vega on his hurdling career on this card.
But another Closutton inmate, Minella Cocooner, a Grade 1-winning novice hurdler last season, should be tough to beat on his chasing bow in the Noreside Catering Beginners Chase.
Conqueror of Minella Crooner and Hollow Games in top-level action at Leopardstown in February, this fellow then chased home classy stable-companion The Nice Guy in both the Albert Bartlett at Cheltenham and Punchestown’s Irish Daily Mirror Novice Hurdle.
He looks a particularly exciting chasing recruit and gets the nod over Henry de Bromhead’s Journey With Me, withdrawn at Punchestown last week, and a last flight faller, when going to be placed in the Ballymore, won by Sir Gerhard at Cheltenham.
He looks every inch a chaser too and is expected to test Minella Cocooner.