At the third time of asking, Salvator Mundi got off the mark over fences at Thurles on Thursday, cruising to a 28-length win over stablemate Fishery Lane in the Horse & Jockey Beginners Chase.
A Grade One-winning hurdler last season, the Willie Mullins-trained six-year-old was beaten at short odds on his chasing debut here in November before finishing a distant sixth to Romeo Coolio in a Leopardstown Grade One on St Stephen’s Day.
Back in calmer waters this time, Salvator Mundi was sent off at odds of 1-7 and won with the ease a 1-7 shot should, hitting the front from the second fence and sauntering to victory from there.
“He got turned over at short odds here previously on his first run over fences and while I didn’t ride him when he was in deeper waters at Leopardstown afterwards, I thought he was a bit disappointing,” winning jockey Paul Townend said.
“He had a straightforward task today and I thought he jumped really well and enjoyed himself. He took on his fences really nicely and stayed going well on testing ground. You couldn’t knock him today.”
In response to Salvator Mundi’s facile victory, Paddy Power cut him from 25-1 to 20-1 for the Arkle at next month’s Cheltenham Festival.
Stablemate Laurets d’Estruval also booked his Cheltenham ticket after the Rich Ricci-owned 30-100 favourite eased to victory in the Holycross Maiden Hurdle.
Laurets d’Estruval had to settle for second on his Irish debut at Limerick on St Stephen’s Day but was always in cruise control here, beating Jet To Monte Carlo by 13 lengths.
“He’s a smashing horse,” Townend said. “He improved plenty from his first run and jumped impeccably. He quickened when I wanted him to and hit the line strong so I’m delighted with him.
Townend added: “He stepped forward hugely on his first run, like most of ours have. It was a decent run and he built on that. He’ll be on the boat (for Cheltenham).” The Gordon Elliott-trained Puma’s Dream built on an encouraging run when fourth at Naas in December to win the www.thurlesraces.ie Maiden Hurdle in the hands of Jack Kennedy.
“He had a nice run the last day but he’s still a big baby and we were hoping he’d come forward,” Kennedy said of the winner, returned at odds of 6-1. “He loves that ground and he did it nicely. I thought when we quickened that maybe he might just get lost a little bit because he’s a big frame of horse but he picked up well.” Elliott and Kennedy quickly doubled up when Timeless Treaty bolted up by 24 lengths in the Thurles Rated Novice Hurdle.
“He was good, really good,” said Lisa O’Neill, representing Elliott. “Lovely to see him do that and recapture his form. He’d actually been running relatively well in handicaps without getting too close. Jack said he probably still wasn’t in love with the ground but he got through it.
“Things haven’t worked out as easy as we wanted but it was great to see him do that, we always knew he was capable of it. The way he did that there I don’t see why he won’t go to Cheltenham. Gordon will find an option for him but we’ll see how he comes out of today and go from there.” She added: “Jack’s riding out of his skin and Gordon’s horses are in fantastic form so long may it continue.”
The Racing Again On The 19th February Handicap Chase produced a big-priced winner, 22-1 shot Quornofamonday landing the spoils for trainer Philip Dempsey and jockey Donagh Meyler.
“He’s very hard to get right and he is what he is, although he was back down to his own grade today and maybe the cheekpieces helped,” Dempsey said.
Runner-up River Vale was subsequently disqualified after jockey Luke Burke-Ott weighed in light.
Only eight of the 17 that went to post for the William Hill Each Way Extra Challenge Series Handicap Hurdle finished the race but the Matthew Smith-trained Aine’s Lad, second at Punchestown last month, revelled in the testing conditions to get off the mark at the 14th time of asking.
“He ran a cracker the last day when he was unlucky to just bump into one. He loves the heavy ground and won nicely,” winning jockey James Smith, son of the trainer, said.
“He has had a few little problems and it has taken a while for the penny to drop but they are straightened out now and today’s race went to plan.” The Terence O’Brien-trained Leonard Vallis bounced back to form to reel in long-time leader Thinkitdontjinxit in the finale, the John Thomas McNamara Series Flat Race.
Second over hurdles on debut at Gowran Park in October, Leonard Vallis disappointed in a Navan bumper a month later but was superb here in the hands of Darragh Allen.
“I can’t say I was overly confident as while his first run was better than I had expected of him, he then ran terribly at Navan,” O’Brien admitted. “I had a very lean spell with horses for two months around that time as they were scoping wrong but things have turned around in the past few weeks.
“I wasn’t sure of today’s extreme ground but he delivered on the potential of his first run, and he’ll be a smashing horse going forwards.”
