Mullins Excels On Ruby Thursday

Any fears that this would be a Cheltenham Festival devoid of a Willie Mullins winner were allayed in emphatic fashion on Thursday when the trainer and his number one jockey Ruby Walsh were back centre-stage to claim all three of the day's Grade 1 contests, plus a Grade 2 for good measure.

To some extent, Mullins had been enduring a Festival to forget, with a number of his high-profile horses having suffered injuries in the build-up, while odds-on favourite Douvan (Fr) (Walk In The Park {Ire}) disappointed in the G1 Queen Mother Champion Chase and was subsequently found to be lame. But Thursday quickly became a day to remember as first Yorkhill (Ire) (Presenting {GB}) then Un De Sceaux (Fr) (Denham Red {Fr}) and Nichols Canyon (GB) (Authorized {Ire}) restored natural order in the Mullins camp.

For British owner Graham Wylie it was a return to the glory days when his game Inglis Drever (GB) (In The Wings {GB}) ruled the staying hurdling division, with Nichols Canyon landing his eighth Grade 1 win over hurdles and giving his owner a fourth victory in the Sun Bets Stayers' Hurdle.

“Willie rang me when he found Nichols Canyon and he said, 'I think he could be your next Inglis Drever',” recalled Wylie. “Even though he's won eight Grade 1 races I still think he's been a little overlooked.”

Mullins added, “We bought him with a view to going to this race–it's Graham's favourite race at the Festival. It's taken him a long time to settle and we used completely different tactics today. Ruby dropped him in and got him settled. Coming over the second-last I thought to myself that we'd be in the first four, but then he got space on the rail coming to the last and he's so like [dual Champion Hurdler] Hurricane Fly (Ire) that when he locks onto a hurdle it's done and dusted. You're always going to get an extra half-length from him at a hurdle and then he'll battle all the way home.”

The comparison with Hurricane Fly doesn't end there. A son and a grandson of Montjeu (Ire), respectively, Hurricane Fly and Nichols Canyon both won listed races in France–the latter for John Gosden–before being switched to jumping with great success.

Nichols Canyon's victory capped a stellar day for Wylie after another of his colour-bearers, Yorkhill, had belied his notably quirky nature when posting a faultless round of jumping under a skilled hold-up ride from Ruby Walsh in the day's opener, the G1 JLT Novices' Chase.

“To get on the board is huge, and to get on the board in a Grade 1 is better,” said a relieved Mullins immediately after the race, little knowing what the rest of the day had in store for him. “It's good for me, it's good for Ruby, and it puts confidence back in the team. It's been a hard few days but that's the way it is. It wouldn't be any fun winning over here if it was easy, so we take what we can get.”

Issuing an update on Douvan, who was never able to jump with his customary flair throughout Wednesday's feature race, he added, “Douvan was quite lame this morning again when I brought him out. We had a good look over with the vets. He's on the way to get an MRI scan either later this afternoon or tomorrow. It's something up in his hindquarters, we think–it looked like his near hind leg, and we think it is above the hock from the way he is carrying himself. He was quite sore last night but is more comfortable today.”

If Nichols Canyon is now a more settled creature according to his trainer, the same cannot be said for his stablemate, the tearaway Un De Sceaux. But what he lacks in restraint he more than makes up for in ability and he soon had some strongly fancied rivals toiling in his wake as he set a relentless gallop in the G1 Ryanair Chase. Walsh made vain attempts to anchor the exuberance of his partner in the early stages of the race but eventually allowed him to tug his way to the front and hurtle from fence to fence, eliciting gasps from the crowd with his almost recklessly bold jumping.

Hailing the winner as “a real racehorse”, Mullins admitted he has his heart in his mouth watching him at exercise every morning and added, “To do what he does every day, I mean Ruby is only half in control half the time and you always wonder whether he will get home, but he just seems to find reserves from I don't know where. He is just everything you would want in a racehorse. He is brave, strong and sound.”

Not content with landing the three major contests of the day, Mullins and Walsh returned to the fray to give Rich and Susannah Ricci back-to-back wins in the G2 Trull House Stud Mares' Novices' Hurdle, as Let's Dance (Fr) (Poliglote {GB}) followed the example set by last year's facile victrix Limini (Ire) (Peintre Celebre).

“We're late to the party but we brought the music,” said Rich Ricci, who also owns Douvan.

With Mullins now closing in on Gordon Elliott's five winners this week, the party will almost certainly have lasted long into the night for those in his resurgent team.

THE LITTLE ROGUE WITH A BIG HEART

By Emmanuel Roussel

Even though most hardcore jumps fans know him very well by now, there is something about the AQPS Un De Sceaux that keeps them on their toes every time he's out on the course, mostly as favourite. Few horses sprint down the hill leading to the final steep straight line of Prestbury Park after showing the way a few lengths ahead of the field, jumping fences with a boldness not many jockeys would find comfortable.

Such antics have not stopped the 9-year-old son of Denham Red from winning 18 of his 23 races and forking over £900,000 in his native France, Ireland and Britain. He won a second Grade 1 at the Cheltenham Festival on Thursday and it looks like he knows what he's doing now. Perhaps he always did.

Born in Sceaux d'Anjou in the west of France at Rene Choveau's farm, Un De Sceaux is out of a mare, Hotesse de Sceaux (April Night), who was never placed in her races and hadn't produced much at stud. But Pierre de la Guillonniere of Haras de la Rousselière, the owner of Denham Red, had noticed that his stallion's offspring had a certain affinity with April Night mares, so he made a foal-share deal with Choveau.

His fourth dam may have been Gorda, who was fourth in the G1 Prix Saint-Alary back in 1967, but that made little difference to potential buyers, so Pierre de La Guillonniere leased Un De Sceaux to trainer Fabrice Foucher, based by the ocean in Saint-Michel-Chef-Chef. It didn't work well initially as Un De Sceaux was already quite a character, and only by galloping him on a 20km beach did they finally manage to teach him to somehow settle and get ready to race.

First he won an AQPS flat race by a distance. Then he went to Saint-Brieuc and won again, only by seven lengths this time. So he suddenly became a very interesting little horse, piquing the interest of bloodstock agent Pierre Boulard, who traveled half the country to buy him and send him over to Willie Mullins's yard in Ireland.

Since then, with the breeders' premiums Un De Sceaux has earned for her, Monique Choveau, Rene's widow, has completely rebuilt her house, which would have been impossible on her meagre farmer's pension.

The French connection has continued for Un De Sceaux, who is ridden every day by ex-pat Virginie Bascop, the resident vet at the Mullins stable.

“I have ridden as an amateur and I also have an eventing background,” she explains. “That led me to take care of some 'problem' horses at Willie's and that's how I had Un De Sceaux allotted to me. He was pulling hard all the time and, eventually, that hurt him. I started to do some flat work with him in a manege. The idea was to make him understand that I was in charge, but that I also was his friend. It has been a long process and it's not an exact science, but I somehow have some control on his speed now.”

She adds, “He needs to be left alone, to do his thing the way he sees fit. That's the way he does things, but he gives a lot in return. And what is also great is that he's now owned by the O'Connell family–a great horse for great people.”