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Watch: Kopek Des Bordes and Lulamba shine on chasing debuts
By Racing TV
Last Updated: Mon 17 Nov 2025
Kopek Des Bordes and Paul Townend were the comfortable winners at Navan on Monday. (Healy Racing)
Kopek Des Bordes lived up to the considerable expectation around his debut over fences when taking the Pat Sheils Memorial Irish EBF Beginners Chase at Navan.
The Willie Mullins-trained five-year-old was twice a Grade One winner last season, taking novice hurdles at Leopardstown and Cheltenham before a fourth-placed run in the KPMG Champion Novice Hurdle at Punchestown.
He was the 2-9 favourite under Paul Townend to get his chasing career off to a winning start, and those odds looked more and more reasonable as he travelled round Navan.
Jumping neatly and making matters look very simple throughout, the gelding strolled to a five-length victory to remain the 5-2 joint-favourite with Coral for the Arkle, shortening from the same price to 7-4 for the race with Paddy Power.
Mullins said of the run: “I’m very pleased with that. He has to learn and get experience, and he got a fair bit today I think.
“When he sees a fence, he just wants to go and jump it. He’s very keen in that respect. As he goes up in grade, the pace will get faster and hotter and I think it will be all to his benefit.”
In comparison to the well-regarded Final Demand, who won his chasing debut at Navan on Sunday, Mullins said: “He has enough schooling done. This fellow was a bumper horse compared to a point-to-pointer, which Final Demand was.
“He (Final Demand) would have done a lot more schooling in his younger days, whereas this fellow has been schooling mainly over hurdles and a bit over fences.”
Mullins’ pencilled-in plans include Leopardstown over Christmas, the Dublin Racing Festival and the Cheltenham Festival, with the trainer saying: “That would look a sort of a plan at this minute – that will be route ‘A’ anyway.”
The winning jockey added: “I was very impressed with what he did. He figured things out for himself.”
When asked what mark out of 10 he would give him, Townend replied: “I’d give him nine.”
Lulamba as short as 3-1 for Arkle after Exeter win
Lulamba made a winning debut over fences in the Royal Oak, Heavitree “Chasing Excellence” Beginners’ Chase at Exeter.
Nicky Henderson’s four-year-old emerged as the leading juvenile hurdler in Britain last season, finishing second to Poniros in the Triumph Hurdle before then reversing that form at Punchestown.
Making his chasing debut in what looked a decent race on paper, Lulamba was in receipt of an 8lb weight allowance against the likes of 148-rated hurdler Salver, with that runner helping to force the pace with previous Grade Two winner Tripoli Flyer, while Nico de Boinville was content to sit third.
Low sun meant the number of fences was reduced from 12 to eight, but Lulamba negotiated the ones he did have to jump with aplomb, barring one slow leap, with the 2-5 favourite winning by a comfortable 10 lengths from the fast-finishing Fingle Bridge.
De Boinville told Racing TV: “That was fairly smooth I think. I was probably one of the only ones disappointed the fences were taken out down the back as the more fences they can jump in public the better.
“He was a bit active before the race, he tried to go back to the stables before coming out on to the track but he was just very fresh.
“He’s not slow but you can see from the way he jumps he could definitely get further, he’s very clean and makes a lovely shape. More like a Ballyburn than your hurdling types.
“I think over time he’s a horse to be patient with and pick your battles carefully.
“They’ve gone a nice gallop but we were still bunched up turning in before it turned into a bit of a sprint.”
Paddy Power make Lulamba a 3-1 shot for the Arkle at Cheltenham in March, with William Hill going 4-1 about his Festival chance.
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