Lydia Hislop's Road To Cheltenham: A Klassical over-reaction?

It’s all up for grabs here after successive favourites last week, Klassical Dream and Champ, were each beaten in turn.

Now titleholder Flooring Porter again tops the ante-post market, having been held by the former last time out when arguably disadvantaged by conceding several lengths at the start. Arguably, because whether you think it made the difference between victory and defeat may depend on how you read the runner-up’s idiosyncracies. On that day, I think the winner was unassailable.

Talking of eccentricities, unimaginably to many – including me – 2019 Cheltenham hero Paisley Park is back in the game following his third success in the Cleeve Hurdle, despite looking, at best, quirky and, at worst, reluctant at the start. Either way, on this occasion conceding at least ten lengths by half-whipping around was no debar to him catching Champ just before the last. The question is whether that would always be the case.

Let’s proceed chronologically through last week’s fast-developing storyline.

Seemingly reformed crock Klassical Dream pitched up in the Grade Two John Mulhern Galmoy Hurdle at Gowran when I think most of us were probably resigned to not seeing him again until the Festival. He’d been very impressive when winning Leopardstown’s Christmas Hurdle, yes pinching a lead but then cutting out strong fractions for a two-length defeat of Flooring Porter.

This time, the pace Paul Townend set was nowhere near as exacting and that may have contributed to Klassical Dream’s defeat. He may not have been capable of reproducing such a pace, of course, perhaps recoiling from such a big effort four weeks earlier. Whatever, his record since his 2018/19 novice-hurdling season is sparse and like the girl with a curl in consistency.

Having jumped right on some occasions and big on others at Gowran, he found nil when challenged in the straight. Bar for his retreat, the order up front didn’t change much – testifying to the steady pace. Runner-up Home By The Lee, who admittedly had some decent novice-chasing form last season, and third-placed Ashdale Bob, switching from an underwhelming novice-chasing campaign, were flattered.

The winner was the likeable mare Royal Kahala, racing against geldings for the first time and stepping up to three miles – a trip trainer Peter Fahey had long been certain would suit.

Tracking the pace not too far away – rider Kevin Sexton having been advised by the trainer not to adopt their usual waiting-in-rear tactics and to be wary of Townend getting a freebie up front – she recovered from a minor error three out to challenge towards the stands’ side in the straight, hurdling the final two obstacles fluently and leading before the last.

Yet after a fine effort to chase down Heaven Help Us in a mares’ Grade Three at Leopardstown over Christmas, she probably didn’t need to improve much, if at all, to win this. Nonetheless, the form boosts this column’s position on Telmesomethinggirl, who was conceding weight to Royal Kahala on that occasion and didn’t get a clear run.

Afterwards Fahey reiterated his position that the mare won’t run unless the ground at Cheltenham is at least soft, stressing that France could offer an alternative option if Punchestown were also too quick, and that she will be a much better chaser than hurdler. Royal Kahala is bred for three miles and could well improve for a more strongly run race, albeit she’d probably need to with the favourite having markedly underperformed here.

“The ground will decide it completely,” Fahey said, of her potential target in March. “If Cheltenham turned up very soft, she’d go to the Mares’ Hurdle the first day. And if it wasn’t, we’d sit on the fence and see the way things go.” Offered a hypothetical soft-ground Festival by Gary O’Brien on Racing TV, he added: “If it was heavy, she’d run in the Mares’. If it was soft, I don’t know.”

As a result of these developments, recent Long Walk Hurdle winner Champ was catapulted to ante-post Stayers’ Hurdle favourite. He lasted there merely 48 hours.

The most unnerving element of his defeat is that he did little wrong – settling well behind a better-than-expected pace set primarily by Lisnagar Oscar and again looking at home over the smaller obstacles. Yet he was beaten, whereas Paisley Park did so much wrong and won.

Winning rider Aidan Coleman coolly left it to Paisley Park to get himself back into the race after his misdemeanours and they had latched onto the back of the field before heading out for the final circuit. But the former champion hit his trademark flat spot at the top of the hill, when Lisnagar Oscar injected more pace, and then jumped two out airily, causing his rider to reach for his whip. He would be suspended for two days by the stewards for using it above the permitted level.

Meanwhile, the patiently ridden McFabulous made his move, pressing the leader on the outside at that hurdle, with Champ nosing between them to cover all bases. With Paisley Park outpaced, combined with what happened at the start, the Cheltenham crowd could be forgiven for writing him off – hence the cheer of surprise in the home straight when the shot changed on the big screen to reveal he was within striking distance. We all knew – or hoped – what would happen next.

Coleman had realised rather earlier that his mount was close enough for his characteristic afterburners to kick in. “Top of the hill, I was thinking: yeah, they’re not getting away from me and then definitely from turning in,” he said. “It was probably as close as he’s ever been, nearly, turning in here and I knew he was going to hit the line.”

McFabulous folded tamely – you can decide whether that’s just him, caused by the track, his yard’s form, or a combination of the three. He’s not for me. Lisnagar Oscar was under pressure entering the straight but Champ had to be ridden to master him, leading briefly at the last until Paisley Park inevitably took over on the landing side. Whilst the winner ran on strongly, the runner-up hung left and then wandered right prior to being beaten more than three lengths.

In first-time cheekpieces, this was better from 2020 Stayers’ Hurdle winner Lisnagar Oscar than the regressive form he’d so far produced this term, but he was still beaten more than nine lengths.

It was clearly a step backwards from Champ following his Long Walk defeat of Thyme Hill and, like the winner, he is not straightforward. They’re also both ten-year-olds – older than all bar one winner in the entire history of the Stayers’ Hurdle. Champ remains a leading player for that Cheltenham event, but reverting to hurdles may not turn out to be the glorious career reinvention many imagined after failing to build on Ascot.

As for Paisley Park, Coleman argued that Cheltenham brings out the best in him and it’s impossible to disagree. The concern is whether his worsening antics at the start will defeat him before he’s started in March – quite literally – especially as Klassical Dream and Flooring Porter like to get on with it, and do not falter, when at their best.

“He’s tried that a few times,” Coleman said. “He’s tried it at Ascot before, he tried it in the Cleeve before, he did it at Newbury and I was waiting for it today and he still did it.” Trainer Emma Lavelle believes the horse will behave better in a larger field.

For me, all of this adds up to an opportunity to back Klassical Dream at 5/1 NRNB. Clearly, given his appearance record, that NRNB proviso is critical but I’m prepared to forgive him being on the bounce last week and to trust Willie Mullins to get him to Cheltenham in top order. Put simply, he’s fourth favourite and yet boasts consistently the clear best form in this division when he’s right.

I can only conclude those bookmakers who contrived to trim Chantry House for the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup somehow lost pictures and phoned it in last Saturday. It was impossible to watch any element of his Cotswold Chase success and be anything other than disheartened. The best that can be said is that at least the horse toughed it out, as he appeared to finish spent.

First-time cheekpieces betrayed there was nothing to blame but himself for his early bath in the King George, when unable to jump or travel in an open Grade One contest. Granted, it was an overly strong pace and his first taste of life at that level, but his attributes for the task had been specifically cited by trainer Nicky Henderson beforehand.

Here, his jumping lacked fluency and he never really travelled, but somehow Nico de Boinville nursed him to Grade Two victory. He also dismounted him shortly after crossing the line, clearly feeling his partner was exhausted. However, the veterinary team at Cheltenham deemed him well enough to return to the winner’s enclosure rather than back to the racecourse stables.

Henderson was inclined to ascribe Chantry House’s fatigue to this being his “actual first race since Aintree last year”. There is some merit to this argument, as his trainer opted to prep him for the King George via a match-cum-walkover in an intermediate chase at Sandown.

Henderson also revealed that cheekpieces had even been mooted prior to the King George, but that he had felt Chantry House was “very sharp”. “And he wasn’t,” he admitted. “He just wasn’t sharp enough for that game of flat out over three miles. They went very, very quick at Kempton and he was lost after three or four fences.

“We tried them [cheekpieces] – they definitely sharpened him up at home – and the big question was whether to put them on today or keep them for March. I just rather felt that he had to win today to stay in the ballgame and therefore we ought to have them on. That was a tough race today, they went a good gallop – Santini always sets a good gallop – and they had to work hard.

“It’s lovely ground but it’s not ground that helps them a great deal – it’s quite dead – and he did get tired. But then he’s entitled to and we’ve got plenty of time. I think we take positives out of it all. If he hadn’t won today, I think you’d have to say he had no business running in the Gold Cup.”

Asked by Tom Stanley whether he might consider changing headgear again, Henderson instinctively dismissed the idea before talking himself into a more open mind.

“Those are things up for discussion. I very much doubt that, but I wouldn’t rule anything out or anything in,” he said.

And yet I can’t help but feel that Racing TV’s Jonathan Neesom summed Chantry House’s prospects afterwards by saying: “He’s got about as much chance of winning a Gold Cup as I have.” Neesom also added that if there was a Gold Cup hope in the field, it was the winner’s former stablemate Santini – second to Al Boum Photo in 2020 and now trained by Polly Gundry.

This was Santini’s second start for his new yard and since flopping in last year’s Gold Cup, when failing to take to a first-time visor and jumping abominably. It was a good step forward and yet this stuffy horse’s paddock appearance suggested he could get fitter still. The way he rallied to claim second was encouraging and 50/1 underestimates the propensity for a talented thorough stayer like him to hit the frame. Gundry has since scratched him from his back-up Stayers’ Hurdle option.

Back in third, Aye Right was faultless and yet still beaten more than five lengths, dictating that his sights should be lowered for the Ultima and/or Grand National. Simply The Betts was beaten before stamina was an issue.

Saturday’s Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup should tell us a great deal about where his stablemate and reigning Gold Cup champion Minella Indo is. With first-time cheekpieces applied to pep him up for the King George, they perhaps only encouraged tactics of going too hard against Frodon, who reopposes at Leopardstown.

Surprisingly, Rachael Blackmore is replaced by Robbie Power on Minella Indo here – the reason being that she will ride stablemate A Plus Tard in the Gold Cup.

That means leaving a jockey of her calibre kicking her heels during a Grade One when Power has only had three rides, only one of which was capable of getting competitive, since fighting his way back from three months on the sidelines with a fractured hip. Clearly, the decision-maker felt the horse needed a change.

Further intrigue is provided by the alleged change of tactics for Delta Work. According to this week’s At The Races stable tour, Gordon Elliott said, of the horse he maintains is Gold Cup standard: “We’re going to take all the headgear off him and ride him handier.” Yet Delta Work ran without headgear in the Savills Chase and actually wears first-time cheekpieces here. Curious.

The rush is on to qualify horses for the NH Chase and Naas’s Grade Three novices’ event attracted a number of leading fancies seeking to do just that. Runners need to have raced twice over fences, at least one of which starts must be this season, and have finished in the first four at any time in their chasing career over a two-mile-and-seven-and-a-half-furlong trip or further.

Whereas Vanillier and Stratum had already ticked those boxes, Stattler, Farouk D’Alene and En Beton had not. The race ended up being fought out by two in the latter category, with the winner Stattler – Paul Townend’s choice of three from Willie Mullins’ yard – producing improved form for stepping up in trip but only wearing down Farouk D’Alene after the last.

Stattler was immediately promoted to favourite in most books for the 3m6f Festival contest, narrowly eclipsing Troytown winner Run Wild Fred – pulled out of this race with a temperature by Gordon Elliott and now heading straight to Cheltenham. The latter has the more traditional profile of a NH Chase winner, but Stattler should undoubtedly improve for the extra trip.

Here, he jumped soundly, albeit slow at a couple of fences and corkscrewing another. Mullins wasn’t entirely impressed. “I was hoping Stattler would jump better,” he admitted. “He was a bit novicey, but I suppose it was a big step up in class from his first win over fences and it told there.

“He’ll learn a lot and, with the way he jumped, he needed the three miles and will probably have no trouble going further. It was a fight the whole way up the straight and he only asserted in the last 100 yards, but I’m happy he did that. I’d imagine that will probably put him into the National Hunt Chase in Cheltenham. A longer trip going a bit steadier will suit him.”

Fences have enabled Stattler to turn his Albert Bartlett form around with Vanillier. They were fourth and first respectively in that contest, but the winner is habitually the more hesitant jumper. To be fair, he was a bit better here but still tends to slam on the brakes rather than have a cut – typified by forfeiting his lead this way at the very first fence – and he also pecked a couple of times on the way around. He was left behind after two out.

Farouk D’Alene – stablemate to Run Wild Fred – had previously been nutted on the line by Master McSheein the Grade One Faugheen Novice Chase at Limerick, shaping as though he would handle more of a trip. This was at least as good as that and he could yet have a range of options, including handicaps, for his first trip outside Ireland at the Festival.

The lightly raced En Beton was disappointing but may turn out to have a physical excuse. He leapt into the lead at the first and jumped cleanly thereafter until hitting the 11th fence and landing jarringly on his hind legs. I hadn’t noticed him holding his tail at an awkward angle prior to that error, but he was soon afterwards. Headed entering the straight, he then began to hold his head on one side and stopped quickly.

His stable companion Stratum was beaten sooner, starting to lose touch at the ninth and then finished off by a mistake four out. For this admirably versatile horse, fences at Cheltenham in particular look a step too far.

Diol Ker did best of the novices in the Thyestes Handicap Chase at Gowran last Thursday, overcoming an early error to take closer order in the second half of the first circuit and then trying to get involved from the fifth last. This was his best effort yet and, as a second-season chaser, he has the right profile for the NH Chase. Yet his form remains a level below what’s required, so perhaps Noel Meade will direct him towards the Kim Muir.

On paper, Ontheropes is also an ideal type for the NH Chase but, even with cheekpieces added, yet again he couldn’t deal with the pace of a top-flight handicap. Although the formbook says he finished fifth, he was unable to get involved in any real sense. He’s worth a spin at Cheltenham as the five-furlong longer trip will help, however.

At Fairyhouse last Saturday, Floueur initiated a 1-2-3 for Elliott and beat a clutch of largely disappointing rivals in a 2m5f beginners’ chase strewn with mistakes. The winner himself jumped the last “like a bag of hammers” according to commentator Jerry Hannon – an apt description, because he got in close and then rather swung himself over, hoping gravity would do the rest.

Frontal Assault and fourth-placed beaten favourite Egality Mans – the latter a faller when fancied to beat En Beton previously – jumped hairily, the former rallying after getting outpaced entering the home turn and recording a career best. He’s another for the Kim Muir, if not rated above the upper limit.

Over in Britain, Imperial Alcazar potentially shouldered his way into consideration for the Turners Novices’ Chase with a dominating ten-length victory in Cheltenham’s novices’ handicap chase last Saturday. He jumped much better than when beaten by Pats Fancy at Chepstow, when his keenness forced jockey Paddy Brennan to get him close into his fences to slow him down in the early stages and the lack of fluency stuck with his mount late on.

This brought up his 100th winner of the season for trainer Fergal O’Brien, who cited the Paddy Power Festival Plate as his likeliest target. There is a recent precedent, as Simply The Betts won both races just two years ago, the latter from a mark of 149. Imperial Alcazar is now rated 152, so O’Brien could yet be tempted by graded company with the Brown Advisory also an option.

Pats Fancy missed Exeter’s three-mile novice-chase clash with Dusart on Wednesday due to pulling off a shoe. That left Nicky Henderson’s lightly raced chaser – having just his fourth career start at the age of seven and his second over fences – with little to beat bar the fences, as his closest on-paper rival Flash Collonges has thus far failed to take to chasing.

Dusart jumped slightly better than on his farcical debut, when facing only two rivals and half the intended 18 fences. Again here, he adjusted persistently left – markedly so on a couple of occasions – and rider Nico de Boinville admitted afterwards that he’s looking forward to getting him racing left-handed. He also spoke of Dusart as “a work in progress”, almost but not quite conceding that entries in the Turners and Brown Advisory might come too soon for a talented but gawky young chaser.

At Doncaster on Saturday, the presence of For Pleasure couldn’t have set up the Grade Two Lightning Chase better for Third Time Lucki. Dan Skelton’s smart chaser was making his return to action after going off too hard – and not jumping well enough as a result – against Edwardstone in the Henry VIII Chase at Sandown in early December.

This time the role of hare was played by For Pleasure, who knows no other way, thus enabling Harry Skelton to drop Third Time Lucki out and get him settled. His mount jumped fluently, taking closer order at halfway and his rider even took several pulls in the straight to delay him moving effortlessly closer to the leader. Do Your Job – a faller in the Henry VIII and a ten-length second to Edwardstone in the Wayward Lad – was beaten four out.

Harry Bannister soon felt the pressure and fired For Pleasure at the second last, who – as is his technique – brushed through the top with a low trajectory. Yet it did nothing to fend off Third Time Lucki, who was still on the bridle when moving upsides the leader at the last – where Bannister’s brave partner stood off too far in an effort to stay in the game and came down. The winner came home 30 lengths clear at a canter.

As extensively discussed in both this column and the show, there had been an overreaction to Third Time Lucki’s defeat at Sandown – being at the hands of a very smart horse and also with some excuses about the margin of his 16-length defeat. Skelton’s novice also holds the advantage over Edwardstone of previous chasing experience at Cheltenham and these patient tactics should enable him to distribute his energy more evenly there.

Personally, I now wouldn’t go anywhere near the Arkle or the Grand Annual with For Pleasure – and hopefully the best thing that comes of this tumble is that it leads his connections to the same conclusion. He isn’t quite good enough for the Arkle and his trajectory of jumping would be a liability at Cheltenham. Why not wait for Aintree? Far more suitable.

With Ferny Hollow’s campaign sadly truncated for the second season running, ante-post betting for the Sporting Life Arkle has nominated Blue Lord as chief deputy for Willie Mullins. This caused him to leapfrog the best British hope, Edwardstone, to favouritism – even though the latter, at this stage, boasts superior form that has been widely and repeatedly franked.

But that could all change this Saturday when Blue Lord – the choice of Paul Townend – takes on stablemates Haut En Couleurs, ridden by Bryan Cooper, and Saint Sam, for whom Rachael Blackmore has been booked, in the Ward Solicitors Irish Arkle at Leopardstown.

Rivière D’Etel – who pushed Ferny Hollow at Leopardstown over Christmas – also lines up, with Elliott indicating that this will help him decide whether she’s to take on the boys in novice company at Cheltenham or more seasoned girls in the Mrs Paddy Power Mares’ Chase.

Not surprisingly, given what he’s been telling us all season about the weather holding his string up, there has been a flurry of pre-Cheltenham activity from Willie Mullins in the novice-hurdling department in the past few days.

It began with Allegorie De Vassy winning an eventful edition of the Grade Three Solerina Mares Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse last Saturday. Paul Townend had opted to ride Brandy Love – albeit the trainer revealed he had been asked for a steer he could not provide. So, the stable jockey stuck with the mare he’d won on previously at Naas and thus enabled Sean O’Keeffe to maintain his partnership with the winner.

Brandy Love set off in front, already five lengths in the lead by the first but partly negated this with an awkward jump out to the left. This habit deepened as the race developed, despite the mare being unhassled on the lead, and became so extreme that her rider believes it made the difference between victory and three-and-a-half-length defeat.

“Paul thought coming in that he had the measure of the winner,” Mullins reported. Her waywardness didn’t take the Closutton camp by surprise – Mullins acknowledged that his son Patrick had flagged her tendency to hang left when he rode her in both of her bumpers.

While Brandy Love is expected to fare better on a left-handed track, she still inclined left at Leopardstown last term and Cheltenham’s New Course – host of the Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle, her declared target – lacks a continuous inside running rail. Mullins therefore suggested he might reach for headgear at the Festival.

The winner boasts the greater experience over hurdles, having raced four times in France prior to joining Mullins and winning over this same course and distance on New Year’s Day. Then, the rangy Allegorie De Vassy tended to balloon her hurdles in the style of a horse who’ll be better suited to fences – and perhaps had even been schooled over them.

This time, she was more efficient – albeit there were occasions when you felt she was holding her nose and going in with all four feet. She did well not to ape Brandy Love at most hurdles, even if that rival did in effect surrender victory to her. Of course, her other prime rival – stable companion Grangee – took a somersaulting fall when mounting a challenge at the second last. This provides some ambiguity about the value of the winner’s form.

Grangee rolled over twice, after appearing to clear the hurdle cleanly but then stumble forward with impetus, in what must have been quite a juddering experience. She had just been chased along to get to the heels of the winner from what was surely a comparatively disadvantageous position towards the rear. She looks overpriced at 14/1 (or 10/1 NRNB) against Allegorie De Vassy and Brandy Love at a best-priced 4/1 and 5/1 respectively.

Mullins said afterwards that the “1-2-3” would go to that Cheltenham race, presumably meaning the first three in the betting or else forgetting that Grangee hadn’t completed. He would probably have saddled the clean sweep without that misfortune, although the Joseph O’Brien-trained Lunar Display rallied well after having to switch around habitual poor jumper Braganza – the Mullins-trained mare who won’t be getting on the boat.

He also reported that Dinoblue – this column’s Dawn Run selection – would be going straight there because he “didn’t need to” run her again and this race came too soon after encountering testing ground for her Clonmel success in early January.

This speaks of confidence in her innate ability, scope for progress and hurdling technique – which was slick – but does mean she’ll be going there on just her second-ever lifetime start. Incidentally, stablemate Mi Lighthouse, who finished third at Clonmel, has since given the form a boost by winning at Limerick on Tuesday.

That mare may well have beaten better-fancied stablemate La Prima Donna (albeit an uneasy favourite) – who’d previously finished ahead of her but well behind Dinoblue at Clonmel – had she not stumbled and suddenly crumpled to the floor two strides after jumping the second last cleanly. Wearing first-time cheekpieces, she’d just been challenged for the lead by the winner.

Rich and Susannah Ricci owned the first two winners of the Dawn Run – Limini in 2016 and Let’s Dance the following year – and they will be hoping that Allegorie De Vassy will be at the forefront of a rather more credible building-back-better project. Nonetheless, I still prefer my quick-jumping, precociously bred, unexposed Dinoblue.

At Naas the following day, two of the three novices that Mullins sent out for the 2m3f maiden hurdle by rights should have fought out the finish. As it turned out, The Nice Guy won the race by eight lengths on his debut over obstacles, maintaining his unbeaten record after two previous bumper triumphs for owner Malcolm Denmark. He jumped well and saw out the race strongly.

Yet it would have been much closer – but surely not a different result – had stablemate Ramillies not blundered at the last, losing his hind legs and skidding badly, thus handing back second spot to the Henry de Bromhead-trained The Short Go.

The latter – previously third, and unfortunate not to be second, behind the Mullins-trained Hawai Game on his racecourse debut – pulled hard throughout and hung in behind the winner, perhaps having exhausted himself, when produced to challenge two out. Ramillies was caught flat-footed on landing two out but rallied stoutly until making his chance-ending error. It was far from his first, mind.

The Nice Guy holds entries in all three novice events at the Cheltenham Festival, but Mullins suggested he’s leaning towards the Albert Bartlett. In last week’s show, Ruby Walsh offered the view that this race is evolving – that classier horses are trying it and so experience will no longer necessarily trump raw ability, as has so often been the case in the past.

However, it remains a fact that unless you’re seriously planning on winning a Gold Cup or, at least, a Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase with your Albert Bartlett contender, your horse needs much more experience than The Nice Guy’s three lifetime starts. Still now, only Bobs Worth and Minella Indo have been able to win it with fewer than six preceding career starts.

Ramillies, who’s entered in the Ballymore and the Albert Bartlett, was having his first start since last April and also making his hurdling debut. However, he has also won a Point and raced five times in bumpers, which would help in the Potato Race. This seven-year-old has long drawn admiring reviews from his trainer and this post-race assessment – fat jibe notwithstanding – was in a similar vein.

“Ramillies might justify my comments about him over the past couple of years!” he said. “He ran a terrific race and I think he probably needed that run. I couldn’t have done any more with him at home and I think that should bring him on hugely. He’s a big, round horse.”

The following day at Punchestown, Kilcruit finally got off the mark over hurdles when bossing inferior rivals with an immediate five-length lead thrown in for good measure at the start. Only Bold Approach tried to make a race of it – or was fleetingly capable of doing so – but he was left behind in the home straight due to the stout fractions the winner was shelling out. Ultimately, he was merely nudged out for a 21-length success.

Prior to this, Kilcruit had looked frail under pressure – wobbling about in defeat but also in victory and finding nothing on either of his preceding starts over hurdles. I had wondered whether this trait indicated a physical and/or mental problem, with the suggestion headgear might help. Mullins applied a first-time tongue-tie here and later revealed his team had “changed his routine at home”.

“We didn’t think there was an issue, but maybe it’s just developing this year,” he was reported as saying directly after this opening race – when he also confirmed that the Sky Bet Supreme is the plan, despite being stabled with more fancied candidates for that race.

Speaking to Fran Berry on Racing TV after Classic Getaway had won 90 minutes later, the trainer revised his initial position that “it wouldn’t have looked like the fastest two miles” admittedly with the caveat that “we’ll see what the time is like compared to the rest of the day”. That comparison, overall and sectionally, revealed that Kilcruit maintained a good clip.

“There wasn’t a puff out of him, so I think there was plenty left in the tank as well,” Mullins added, having earlier also favourably contrasted Kilcruit’s reaction to his exertions to that of Classic Getaway in winning the later 2m4f maiden hurdle in “workmanlike” style. “I’m hoping there’s a lot more left in the locker,” he said. “He was having a huge blow when he came in there. Compared to Kilcruit, he wouldn’t blow out a candle when he came in.”

Mullins had fitted a hood to Classic Getaway to address his refusal to settle when beaten by elder stablemate Cash Back on his hurdling debut at Clonmel last time out. On that occasion, the beaten favourite was unfairly maligned for being the victim of a well-orchestrated smash-and-grab operation by an innately quicker rival.

Here, his jumping wasn’t the slickest and his indolence when hitting the front from the home turn might have become more of an issue had patiently ridden runner-up The Waltzer not fluffed the last. His trainer was clearly underwhelmed.

To wrap up the Closutton update, we head to Limerick on Tuesday where Mullins sent out State Man to win the two-mile maiden hurdle that succeeded Mi Lighthouse’s victory over the same course and distance. The overall time was around 2.5 seconds slower than the mares’ opportunity hurdle, but the winner, carrying 6lb more, came home 12 lengths clear against inferior opposition.

He’d previously crumpled on landing at the penultimate flight on his Irish debut at Leopardstown over Christmas when looking likely to have played a part in the finish. He’s entered in both the Supreme and the Ballymore.

Meanwhile back in Britain, Cheltenham’s Grade Two Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle turned into a nonsense race, yet might still have produced a useful winner.

For clarity, this was the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle, registered as the Classic, not the Ballymore run at the Festival as a Grade One on the other track. Why would anyone find that befuddling, eh? Anyone who says sponsors and racecourses are sowing self-defeating confusion needs to get with British racing’s levelling-down agenda.

It had looked for much of Saturday that Cheltenham would evade the curse of low sun but the clouds parted just before the Ballymore-sponsored Classic, causing both obstacles in the straight to be dolled off and thus reducing the total jumping tests by three – the would-be third, fourth and last in this contest.

Carlisle novice hurdle winner Harper’s Brook – well beaten last time behind Lossiemouth in a Sandown Grade Two – set off in front and the giant Hillcrest sat second, having led when winning over the course and distance on New Year’s Day. But that didn’t last long. At the would-be fifth and actual third, the leader barely took off and – in trying to avoid first that rival and then his jockey, Kielan Woods, who’d been catapulted right – Hillcrest unseated Richard Patrick.

After carefully selecting this race instead of Doncaster’s River Don on the same day, trainer Henry Daly learned nothing. Worse, he’d already had to deal with the sorrow of losing Whatmore earlier in the day.

If I were Daly, I’d be going nowhere near the Cheltenham Festival with Hillcrest. Aintree’s Grade One Sefton Novices’ Hurdle is the place for him. The likely depth of the Ballymore and the stern interrogation of the Albert Bartlett feel like wrong place, wrong time. There’s plenty of time for him to return to Cheltenham as a novice chaser next season.

The odds-on favourite having thus exited, this race was left to just four runners. A Different Kind inherited the lead, as Picanha and Balco Coastal were both mildly hampered the exit of Harper’s Brook. The eventual winner North Lodge – on just his second start on a racecourse – was held up and jumped poorly at the next two hurdles.

Eight-year-old Picanha struggled to hold his position, as he had previously prior to winning at Warwick, and made mistakes as a consequence. A Different Kind – conceding 3lb to all bar Hillcrest and unbowed in his last five starts, three over hurdles – led the remaining field turning for home but was outpaced on each side, by Balco Coastal towards the stands and North Lodge towards the far rail, as they bypassed the final flight.

Balco Coastal travelled best, but he half-jumped the path and North Lodge found plenty for pressure. The winner hung right once he’d mastered the runner-up, checking the latter’s stride but making no difference to the result. Rider Adrian Heskin earned a four-day ban from the stewards, however – two days for careless riding and the same for using his whip incorrectly.

Afterwards, winning part-owner Max McNeill – who bought North Lodge from the same source, Sean Doyle, as one of his past favourites, The Worlds End – confessed that the original plan had been “to go small” at Fontwell but trainer Alan King had fancied a pop at this Grade Two. “I’d love to go to the Ballymore,” McNeill added.

North Lodge is clearly smart but he’s also raw and would need to improve a good deal to get involved at the Festival. Yet who’s to say he couldn’t, with this career trajectory and such a positive attitude.

Nico de Boinville concluded that Balco Coastal “is a two-miler” according to Nicky Henderson – which is clearly possible, given how strongly he travelled. “It does muddy the water a bit,” the trainer acknowledged, referring to already having both Constitution Hill and Jonbon aimed at the Sky Bet Supreme. I suspect he might stay further on a flat track, as it happens. Perhaps they will opt to wait until Aintree with him.

Up at Doncaster, the Grade Two River Don Novices’ Hurdle – the event Daly rejected for Hillcrest in favour of the familiar at Cheltenham, instead stepping recent Ludlow winner Bridge North up to three miles – went to the sole Irish raider, you may have been unsurprised to discover.

The John McConnell-trained Mahler Mission, who couldn’t win a maiden in two attempts in his homeland but had been a 14-length winner at Sedgefield 15 days earlier, produced marginally greater stamina and definitively superior street-smarts than the Ann Duffield-trained The Real Whacker to win by two lengths.

Mahler Mission galloped relentlessly on and his jumping got better as the race developed. He was fully ridden out to see off the progressive runner-up’s renewed effort after the last but again the latter wandered waywardly left whilst the winner ran true against the stands’ rail. Both are entered in the Albert Bartlett but would need to improve quite a bit to get involved.

“It wasn’t all about winning today,” said Gordon Elliott, after Pied Piper romped away with the JCB-sponsored Finesse hurdle by nine lengths at Cheltenham last Saturday. This was fair notice for British trainers to assume the crash position when it is.

“It was about getting him switched off and learning how to relax, learning how to breathe,” Elliott continued, in praise of his jockey Davy Russell. “He gave him a beautiful ride. He let him drop in there and follow them around... He was probably in front too soon, now, to be fair.”

To be even more fair to Russell, it would have required a supernatural forcefield to hold his mount back any longer. He barely moved a muscle as Pied Piper propelled himself to the front approaching the last flight.

The worst criticism you could level at Pied Piper was that he was untidy over the fourth and fifth hurdles, because otherwise this was polished.

Yes, Pied Piper clocked virtually the same time as the six-year-old 130-rated Cormier, who’d carried 6lb more, but he achieved it in a different way. Cormier’s closing splits were quicker, having slowed at halfway, but he was involved in a close duel to the line and won by half a length in a driving finish. Pied Piper cruised home unextended and could clearly have gone quite a bit quicker.

This success caused widespread upheaval as not only were rivals hitherto considered the best of British utterly obliterated but Elliott suggested he could reshuffle his Festival hand as a result.

Bookmakers were caught on the hop, trusting the trainer had garaged his Porsche and taken another model out for a spin. Their post-race offerings at around 4/1 didn’t last long. In a matter of minutes, he’d deposed stablemate Fil Dor as ante-post JCB Triumph favourite. Both juveniles run in the red-and-white colours of Andrew and Gemma Brown’s Stoke-based civil engineering firm Caldwell Construction.

It might be relevant that the winner had raced 11 times for John and Thady Gosden on the Flat whereas his main market rivals and closest pursuer at Cheltenham were all raw Jumps-bred types with scant match experience. Pied Piper is in the mould of the more traditional Triumph Hurdle type – the experienced horse who routinely dominated prior to the advent of the Fred Winter.

Owned by The Queen, Pied Piper was rated 96 at the end of the 2021 season, his best performance his last – over ten furlongs in deep ground. Yet he’d also been tried up to 14 furlongs, sported two different types of headgear and suffered from keenness. It had taken 225,000 guineas to secure him.

After he made a winning debut at Leopardstown over Christmas – beating the Willie Mullins-trained Vauban by half a length, the runner-up 15 lengths clear of the rest – Elliott suggested Pied Piper had got tired late on, would “come on a good bit for the run” and that he hadn’t fancied him for that reason. At Cheltenham, the trainer again admitted he’d out-run expectations.

“He’s a horse who does everything very easy at home, so he’s a horse you don’t gallop much,” he told Tom Stanley on Racing TV.

“But he jumps very well... He looks a nice horse, classy horse, he’s got loads of speed. We’ve got lots of directions to go with him if we want to.”

Interestingly, Elliott revealed he’d been inclined to run both Pied Piper and Fil Dor against each other at Leopardstown, but had redirected the former to Cheltenham because the Browns had hoped to attend.

The trainer also wanted to “see how he handled the preliminaries and see where we were with him”. Expect Pied Piper again to wear a red hood from paddock to post at Cheltenham in March – if, indeed, that’s where he's headed, because the manner of this performance might have crystallised Elliott’s thinking on which race will suit this horse best.

“They could both rock up in the Triumph,” Elliott said. “This lad obviously also has the option of the Supreme Novices’ as well – I wouldn’t rule that out, he’s a speedy horse – and you’ve got Aintree as well. There’s a lot of races to go for.”

This was a change in position from the Cullentra trainer, who had previously intimated when making his novice and juvenile entries for the Festival that Pied Piper would most likely join Fil Dor in the Triumph. Now /he’s wondering whether the speedier Old Course, host of the Sky Bet Supreme, might be more suitable.

This in turn could have implications for another Caldwell Construction-owned talent housed by Elliott, the Grade One-winning Mighty Potter. He has a Ballymore option as well as a Supreme entry, with Elliott still maintaining in this week’s At The Races stable tour that his “inclination at the minute is to keep him at two miles for now”. He goes straight to Cheltenham.

No decision is likely to be made on any of this trio’s Festival targets until Fil Dor has also contested the Spring Juvenile. Elliott still compared him favourably with Pied Piper when standing in the Cheltenham winner’s enclosure. “At home on all known form, I’d say the other horse is a better horse but this lad was impressive today,” he said.

Given how much the twice-raced maiden Moka De Vassy had improved from his first start at Ffos Las to his second at Newbury, it was perhaps more of a surprise to the market than it should have been that he should take another large step forward again. The 50/1 shot looked to be jumping and travelling at the extremity of his abilities over 2m1f at this stage in his career, but he kept on determinedly up the final hill. Jane Williams will likely have the long term in mind for him.

Finale third Forever William – beaten just over nine lengths by Porticello at Chepstow – was already being chivvied along heading out into the country prior to the third flight. He needs further than this trip already, but is improving and looks better suited to Jump racing than the Flat.

Iceo finished almost 19 lengths adrift in fourth, having failed to settle in his hood. He screwed the third hurdle airily and also jumped the next flight uneconomically. Like most of the field, he was still in contention two out but made a minor error and then wandered tiredly left and right as the winner breezed past nearing the last. He remains a horse of untapped ability but appears too immature for any Cheltenham target.

It's worth adding the caveat that a high proportion of Paul Nicholls’ horses have underperformed of late. Traditionally, the Ditcheat trainer would blame such stuff on the flu jabs administered to all of his equine inmates at this time of year, so it is perhaps worth retaining a partly open mind about those of his horses deemed to have disappointed lately.

(You might think this tempers enthusiasm for his important projects this weekend, too – Greaneteen in the Dublin Chase and Frodon in the Irish Gold Cup – but the trainer is confident of a better showing and his statistics show his strike rate tends to recover in February.)

Back in fifth, Silver Shade jumped sketchily and was soon outpaced after tripping over the second last, rider Kevin Jones clearly not having been asked to employ the more positive tactics trainer Milton Harris had previously mooted.

Interne De Sivola chased the pace in clear second and again raced freely, as when winning over the course and distance in December. This time, however, he was already being swallowed up when blundering two out and landing awkwardly. He was instantly beaten. His connections blamed his failure to settle, but the similarity of this effort to last time and the rapidity of his capitulation suggested there may have been more to it.

The linearists were backing Vauban for the Triumph on a line through Pied Piper not long after the latter crossed the line at Cheltenham, whilst the former was still posting his Wordle score on Twitter. Advocates will point out that he didn’t jump as well as his New Year’s Eve conqueror at Punchestown and was subject to intermittent interference in the straight, yet still only failed by a rallying half-length.

This argument assumes Vauban will improve to the same degree as Pied Piper and Elliott’s post-race comment about the winner’s fitness, plus the actuality of his improved form next time out, potentially undermines this notion. We’ll hopefully get to find out on Saturday when Vauban takes on Fil Dor in the Racing TV Spring Juvenile Hurdle.

Mullins’ other runners are interesting, too: promising Leopardstown winner Icare Allen and two stablemates yet to race for the yard. The filly Vadaly has won a hurdle in Dieppe but Il Etait Temps ran twice without winning on the Flat in France. So, this assignment in the latter’s case would suggest a campaign tailored either to win a Grade One or remain a novice for next season.

Other contenders include Ben Siegel, Noel Meade’s perhaps underestimated Punchestown maiden hurdle winner, steadily improving Doncaster Listed Mares’ Hurdle winner Six Feet Apart and Fil Dor’s stablemate, The Tide Turns – also a Punchestown maiden winner and sourced from Sir Mark Prescott’s yard. He ran nine times on the Flat in Britain – exiting with a rating of 77 and winning twice, but delivering his best effort in defeat over 14 furlongs.

Finally, a quick word on the Boodles Fred Winter from an Irish perspective – which can only have been buoyed by what Pied Piper did to the British on Saturday. Champion Green clocked the lesser overall time than Man O Work, respective winners of the first and second divisions of Naas’s juvenile maidens last Sunday, but he jumped soundly and only needed to be nudged from approaching the last to draw clear of his rivals.

He’s since been shortened for Cheltenham, but entries aren’t yet made for this contest so it’s a landscape fraught with peril – typified perhaps by the fact that the Mullins-trained Gaelic Warrior heads the market and, given he’s already qualified by racing three times in France, could even make his debut for his new yard at the Festival. One to #AskRuby about.

Advised 26/04/21: Energumene at 14/1 (general) for the Ryanair Chase

Advised 10/11/21: Nube Negra each-way at 25/1 with Bet365 for the Champion Chase

Advised 30/12/21: Galvin at 6/1 (general) for the Cheltenham Gold Cup

Advised 06/01/22: Telmesomethinggirl at 13/2 with Bet365 for the Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle

Advised 06/01/22: Burning Victory at 16/1 with Paddy Power for the Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle

Advised 13/01/22: Hollow Games at 8/1 (with various firms) for the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle

Advised 13/01/22: Dinoblue at 8/1 (general) for the Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle

Advised 20/01/22: Galopin Des Champs at 8/1 for the Turners Novices’ Chase

Back now: Klassical Dream at 5/1 NRNB (various) for the Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle

30/12/21: Al Boum Photo at 16/1 (general) for the Cheltenham Gold Cup

And that’s all, folks...