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Brilliant Ballyburn leads home 1-2-3-4-5 for Mullins
By Racing TV
Last Updated: Wed 13 Mar 2024
Ballyburn made impressively light work of the Gallagher Novices' Hurdle on the second day of the Cheltenham Festival, with trainer Willie Mullins saddling the first five home.
The 1-2 favourite travelled strongly behind the leaders under Paul Townend. When the field rounded the final bend there was no question whatsoever as to the outcome, with the Ronnie Bartlett-owned six-year-old strolling away from stablemate Jimmy Du Seuil to win by a yawning 13 lengths.
Another Closutton runner, Ile Atlantique, was a further three and a half lengths back in third. Just for good measure Mullins was also responsible for Mercurey (fourth) and Predators Gold (fifth).
"It's the first time he's wowed me, I thought 'wow, what a performance' and to me that was a Champion Hurdle performance," Mullins told Racing TV viewers.
"It was really really spectacular. With his size, scope and pedigree our owners might decide to go chasing with him next year, I don't know. But with that performance he can go anywhere.
"Our team are in flying form, but we are just so sorry for Nicky Henderson that he has had to pull his good horses out. It could be us, so our sympathies go to him."
He added: "My heart hasn't skipped a beat when a horse jumps a hurdle since Annie Power, but it skipped a beat there!
"I thought he was a good horse, but I didn't view him as the horse that people were saying until today. When he jumped the last and went away up the hill I just thought 'wow'.\
"This fellow could be anything, he could be a Champion Hurdle horse, a Gold Cup horse or both with his size, scope and pedigree. He's made for fences but looks to have the ability for a Champion Hurdle.
"I didn't realise we'd had the first five, Michael Dickinson obviously did it in the Gold Cup but it's nice to do it in a Grade One at Cheltenham.
"I hadn't even got my licence then, but it was extraordinary to look at a man having so much firepower in one stable and now it looks like we're in the same position at the moment.
"It's nice to do that at the Festival. I know how good our others are, they would be top-class horses any other year and they deserve to be here, the strength behind him - he blew me away.
"When we saw Slade Steel win yesterday that really franked the form and gave us an even better chance."
Bartlett said: "He jumped well, we didn't know how he was going to handle the ground, but that was exciting.
"Let's enjoy the day and the future is in front of him, so we'll just keep our fingers crossed.
"He had lots of different options and in typical Willie style he didn't want to tell us too much, but listen it all came right in the end."
Townend: "It was a doddle of a performance"
Winning jockey Paul Townend said to ITV Racing: “That was a fair feeling. It wasn’t a big field obviously, and we had five of them, but I respect a lot of the horses behind him and he has blown them out the water. It was a bigger performance than I thought he was going to put in to be honest. But riding them you always make doubts I suppose.
“Keep it simple. His bark is a lot worse than his bite, in that, I suppose, if you did get in a row with him, there’s only going to be one winner. But you can let him just put his head down and play with him away and he’s definitely not as strong as he visually looks. He was very good, jumped brilliantly. He is wow.”
The jockey went on to say: “He was brilliant. Brilliant. It was a huge performance, because I know all the horses behind him and I thought it was a talented field. It was a big, big performance.
“If he wasn’t like that (looking fairly keen) you’d be more worried. But his bark is probably worse than his bite because to ride him he doesn’t pull like a train - you just have to play with him and mess away with him, and he’s actually simple enough then.
“Whatever speed you are going he does that. He does that at home too, and he gave me a nice headbutt at the start because he throws his head around a bit, but that’s just him. If you got in a row with him you’d probably upset him so you just have to play with him. He’s looking at the jumps, and you just have to trust him.
“My worry coming going back up in trip after racing over two miles the last time was that he might want to run like a two-miler, but no. His jumping was savage, and his galloping wasn’t bad either!
“I was doing a half-speed everywhere to be honest. The ground is hard work, I just let put half an inch of rein going to the last and then getting over it was the main thing.
“He could be anything, and I think he’d take a fair bit of whacking at two miles too. He’s just a very, very talented horse, and he fairly blew away the Supreme winner at Leopardstown, so the form was stacking up. It was a doddle of a performance.”
More reaction
Winning owners Ronnie Bartlett and David Manasseh were overjoyed.
Bartlett: “He jumped well, we didn’t know how he was going to handle the ground, but that was exciting. Let’s enjoy today, the future is in front of him so we will just keep fingers’ crossed. He had different options [coming into the meeting], in typical Willie style he didn’t want to tell us too much – all came right in the end.”
Manasseh: “I need to breathe, I can’t [sum it up in words]. It’s been a long journey and the last five weeks to get him… just to be here today, with the people that are here at Cheltenham – they are legends of racing, and I’m here and have managed to win at Cheltenham, I can’t believe it.
“I’ve been coming 20 years with the same friends and to just have a runner! And then he was 1/2 [odds]. And the pressure and the hype, it’s unbelievable… thank you very much.”
Sean O’Keefe, rider of runner-up Jimmy Du Seuil, said: “He ran a cracker. The winner is a very good horse but Jimmy Du Seuil took a nice step forward. He’s only learning all of the time and he’l improve again.”
Patrick Mullins, rider the third Ile Atlantique, said: “He’s run well but I think he’s a better horse than the bare form.I think maybe going over fences and coming back to two miles we could let him use his stride and that might be better for him.”
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