Royal Bond mini-shock for Temple Bloodstock

Tounsivator was a nicely supported winner (18/1 - 12s) but nonetheless caused a minor upset to land Fairyhouse's Grade 2 Bar One Racing Royal Bond Novice Hurdle today, scoring for champion trainer Willie Mullins and his nephew jockey Danny Mullins.

The race lost Grade 1 status since last year and in today's eight-runner renewal, Gordon Elliott's Romeo Coolio started 1/2 favourite, with trainer Mullins running five and Tounsivator starting as fourth-favourite. In the race, 138-rated Tounsivator overcame in-running traffic at the second-last to lead approaching at the final flight and eventually saw off Romeo Coolio by 2.5 lengths.

Trainer Mullins reported “I thought every horse that we ran had a chance if they ran their best race. He might have had the fitness edge on them as he'd been running for us during the summer.

“The ground conditions probably suited him better today and I'm very happy with him. I'd imagine we'll go on to Christmas now.”

He added “he was a nice purchase for Temple Bloodstock and I'm very pleased for Aubrey McMahon (syndicate manager): he was a reasonably priced horse and it's tremendous for the syndicate to win a race like that. Aubrey seems to be able to buy them cheap and has also had the English Cesarewitch winner.”

Quotes from Gary Carson