Mullins and Walsh double up with impressive Cilaos Emery Half-an-hour on from their Thyestes heroics with Invitation Only, Willie Mullins and Ruby Walsh were on the mark again in the PMF Beginners Chase courtesy of Cilaos Emery (11/8 favourite) at Gowran. This was an impressive start over the larger obstacles from the Grade One winning novice hurdler, particularly as the French-bred was appearing for the first time since December 2017. Cilaos Emery made a slight mistake two out but it looked fairly straight-forward otherwise in the murky conditions and he eventually had four lengths to spare over Impact Factor. Mullins also had the third home, Duc Des Genievres (two and a half lengths back) and he said: “My two jockeys came in and said they went down over the first three fences as fast as they'd go in any Arkle Chase, or Champion Chase I think Paul said. “The flew over the first three and I was happy with the way my two jumped. It sounded like a really good test so it was good for Cilaos Emery to come out and be able to win starting off like that. I'm very pleased. “It means he'll get an entry in the Arkle, Duc Des Genievres will too. “I wouldn't think he'd go to the Dublin Racing festival as it's next week and it would be too soon. “I'd imagine we'll go straight there at this stage of the season. “I'll see if I can squeeze one in but the third day of Cheltenham is this day seven weeks so it's going to be very hard, especially after that race as it was a very hard race. “They went flat to the boards for most of the race. We'll see how he comes out of it.” S.W. Flanagan, rider of Johnnys Girl trained by Norman Lee, reported to the Clerk of Scales that his mount felt lame and was pulled up. (GC & EM)
