Patrick Mullins - 'I think on the day she'll be a silly price'

Patrick Mullins is in the hot seat on Paddy Power's 'From the Horse's Mouth' this week as he steps in for Ruby Walsh.

View the show in full including some highly-interesting viewers’ questions for both Patrick and Rory, including one below on Fact To File, on Paddy Power’s Racing YouTube channel: “SHE TICKS ALL THE BOXES” | Cheltenham Countdown Ep 6 ft. Patrick Mullins | Bumper | Brown Advisory

Should Fact To File drop right down in trip — he seems to be a horse with more speed than stamina and would he suit a strong gallop in the Champion Chase or the Ryanair, Patrick?

We were always hoping he’d make into a Gold Cup horse, but he didn’t exactly scream Gold Cup horse in Leopardstown the last twice.

But he wasn’t racing really efficiently and the last day they dropped him right in to get him to settle, which he did, but it did leave him a long way back in a slowly run race which was obviously not ideal.

Again there is only one Gold Cup, I think it probably is a pity there is the option of the Ryanair, I think Aintree should be the two and a half mile place, but could I see him going back to two miles at some stage, I wouldn’t be surprised, I think he could be very competitive over two miles.

I think he jumps well, strong cruising speed, but I would imagine with Jonbon there, there is no real need to do that this year. The Ryanair would look the obvious place, but then you have to look at if Galopin Des Champs has got hit by a stray seagull or something, is the Gold Cup more open?

It’s not cut and dry, but look I mean the obvious place to go is the Ryanair, but do you take a chance in the Gold Cup maybe?

Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase

Ballyburn is very good?

He is very good, he has a sixth gear and he wouldn’t blow you away at home and you see it on the track as well, he doesn’t hit that sixth gear straightaway, it does take him maybe 10 strides, but when he does, he takes off.

Look I think fences don’t improve him, I think he’s A to B, I don’t think he gets faster or is going to be a better horse over fences, but what I liked about him in Leopardstown the last time, what I loved at the last, he met it on a kind of awkward stride, he could have done something silly, he didn’t, he got in tight, snapped up very clean, lost a little bit of ground, but picked up again afterwards.

I think his pedigree is all stamina, I don’t think Kempton was ever going to play to his strengths, but I think it made a man of him. I do think he probably learnt a lot there that he wouldn’t have learnt going around in an easier race.

Of course the slight drawback is that he was quite keen over two five at the DRF which is probably from having raced over two miles at Christmas. Hopefully with that under his belt he will settle effectively and race efficiently over three miles, but you would have loved in an ideal world another run over three miles to really just baton down the hatches on him settling properly.

But I think fences probably do help him settle and he definitely lifts his head a little bit when he sees one which obviously makes it easier for the jockey, he stops leaning on you. But I think he’s got the most natural ability in the race definitely.

Is Ballyburn streets ahead of Dancing City at home or are they close together?

Neither of them are particularly flashy - Dancing City is obviously a horse, this race really suits him. The bigger the jumps, the better he is, the further distance, the better he is.

So I think he is the most efficient horse for the race, I think the way he settles, the way he jumps, the way he stays. So that’s what you’re looking at, maybe the horse who suits the race against the horse with the most ability.

I think that’s going to bring them closer together than they would be. Neither of them are particularly flashy at home, but Dancing City obviously won at all the Spring Festivals last year besides Cheltenham.

I’m not sure there was any real reason why he got beat at Cheltenham last year, but it will be a fascinating contest.

Looking at the race?

I think we have four nice chances in this race - I think High Class Hero comes into it as well on good ground. He was second to Dancing City in Punchestown last year, only half a length behind in a two-mile Grade 1.

But I do think he needs good ground — he’s quite a light-framed horse. I rode him in the Albert Bartlett last year, it was soft ground all last year in Cheltenham and he was too keen. I just thought on his Punchestown run he’s a big price and he could probably you’d imagine be ridden to run well. I could see him sneaking into an each-way if the ground is good - I think he does need good ground to be at his best.

If ground comes up good, Ballyburn most likely winner with High Class Hero possibly hitting the frame?

I just think good ground, he’s a horse who could sneak into a place because I just think on the line of form through Dancing City and he’d be a horse that would probably be ridden to run well and when there’s four or five kind of fancied ones, they can get racing and get going early and you can sneak in behind them.

Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase NRNB

Paddy Power: 13-8 Ballyburn, 5-2 Dancing City, 7 Better Days Ahead, 8 Croke Park, Lecky Watson, 10 Jango Baie, 12 Stellar Story, 14 Quai De Bourbon, 16 Gorgeous Tom, 20 Champ Kiely, Search For Glory, 25 Asian Master, Haiti Couleurs, High Class Hero, Jingko Blue, Springwell Bay, 33 bar

Champion Bumper

Would it be fair to say you were panicking for a bumper horse and then two in Gameofinches and Copacabana have emerged?

It’s not unusual that we don’t have much kind of before Christmas, but then Christmas there wasn’t a whole lot bar Green Splendour won and I was hoping he might step forward and he got well beaten at the DRF.

But Bambino Fever now put her hand up quite strongly at the DRF as well and then obviously we’ve had three in the last between Gameofinches, Kaiser Ball and Copacabana.

Three very different horses Copacabana, obviously by Blue Bresil, a store horse so he’d been in the yard all winter. Big and backward, when I first rode him work I thought ‘this is going to be a long haul with this fella’, but every week he got a bit sharper, he’s very laid back, he only does exactly what you ask him, when you ask him to the degree you ask him.

So we went to Navan with him because we wanted a track, not like a Punchestown, where you’re turning and you have to pick up and go. Navan has a three-furlong straight and you can see all the way down the straight, gave him a slap on the shoulder, he’s coming on it and I’m able to sit and sit and once I’ve gone for him and hit him one or two behind the saddle he’s flown.

That looked a bumper with a lot of depth in it. So I was very taken with that performance. He’s quite similar to maybe Appreciate It, he’s a bigger, stronger horse than the likes of Jasmin De Vaux who won last year.

Gameofinches is different — he obviously won a point to point in November so he’s in the yard a bit less time. I prefer having horses in the yard for the whole season rather than halfway through the season.

I’m not sure we’ve had a champion bumper winner who’s kind of came to us in November, December time. He didn’t look well for a long time — we like to give our horses as much time as we can when they come in.

It’s like a kid going from a small school to a big school, our yard is 200 horses and they’re usually coming from yards with 20,40 or 50 horses. I do think this fella could look better but he’s easy in everything, he was working great, he was healthy.

We ran him and it’s obviously quite close to the Cheltenham bumper, that’s why I didn’t give him a squeeze and I would have liked to have given him a squeeze to see what was there, but I’ve given him a squeeze at home and he picks up and he shows a turn of foot.

What did he beat — look Gavin’s horse was fifth in a maiden hurdle. It’s easy enough to run well in a maiden hurdle to finish fourth or fifth, it’s a bit different if you’re going to try and win a bumper.

The third and fourth horses were quite close, their form wouldn’t be anything to set you on fire. So what he achieved is hard to know, but the way he achieved it was obviously very eye catching.

The preparation isn’t ideal for Gameofinches in my book but he’s come out of his race real well and he obviously has huge, huge ability, but you would have preferred to have run a couple of weeks beforehand.

And then Kaiser Ball I thought Tom Costello gave him a fantastic ride. He’s not an easy horse to ride now. Tom obviously rides him out at home all the time, but he’s quite keen and you can see how Tom dropped him right in, got him settled.

It was an unusual bumper in that we went a really strong gallop, the time was significantly faster than the two maiden hurdles on the day. I’ve jumped off handy, but I’ve ended up dropping 10 or 15 lengths back, but perhaps Arslan was too involved over the first two or three furlongs.

The winner and the second both came from last and second last. I think that was a really good run — we liked Arslan, now he is a Wooton Bassett out of an American Group 1 winner so maybe tacky ground over two miles isn’t his thing.

But the second horse Barry Connell’s had a good run in Navan and Kaiser Ball blew them away. He has a fantastic pedigree, his sire is closely related to Nickname and No Risk At All so I don’t know whether he will go to Cheltenham — we’ll have to see what the Costellos want to do.

Again it’s quite close for a horse having their debut — you wouldn’t dream of doing it. We like to give them four weeks after their debut to their second run so whether you roll the dice or not, I don’t know.

Verdict?

I’m not going to make my decision until the horses have travelled over and everything, but what I do think and not for a bet today, but I do think I’m probably going to end up on either Gameofinches or Copacabana and Paul will probably end up on the other one.

I think Bambino Fever is going to be completely overlooked, probably because of jockey bookings. I think her performance at the DRF was very, very good. She won at Punchestown and Leopardstown and ran away twice, mares have a decent record in the Cheltenham bumper.

I think on the day she’ll be a silly price and she’s the one I’d be backing each-way.

Champion Bumper NRNB

Paddy Power: 3 Gameofinches, 5 Copacabana, 11-2 Windbeneathmywings, 6 Kalypsochance, 7 Bambino Fever, 10 Jalon D’Oudairies, 12 No Drama This End, 14 Aqua Force, Ksar Fatal, 16 Champagne Jury, 18 Heads Up, Seo Linn, 20 Classical Creek, Green Splendour, He Can’t Dance, Kindly Prince, Kovanis, Ravendark, Scope To Improve, Skylark Hustle, Sober Glory, 25 bar

Hunters’ Chase

Verdict?

Angels Dawn

Hunters’ Chase NRNB

Paddy Power: 11-4 It’s On The Line, 7-2 Angels Dawn, 5 Willitgoahead, 6 Sine Nomine, 7 Ryehill, Winged Leader, 10 Shearer, Wonderwall, 11 Allmankind, Famous Clermont, 12 Cons Roc, Ferns Lock, Gracchus De Balme, Rockys Howya, 14 Fairly Famous, Ontheropes, 16 bar