Adriana can confirm the big impression she made on debut
She began life in this country at Punchestown on New Year’s Eve and was a strong order in the market.
Backed from 11-10 to 8-11, Adriana Des Mottes made every yard of the running, cruising home 18 lengths to the good over Halling’s Treasure.
It would be wrong to get too carried away with that display and a lot more is required now. There was a fair old swagger about the performance, however, and she may well prove more than equal to this much stiffer task.
Feature event is another Grade 2, the Bobbyjo Chase, and it very much revolves around Gordon Elliott’s Mount Benbulben.
The nine-year-old has a real engine and is a powerful force when on song, as he showed when winning a Grade 1 at the Punchestown festival in April by 22 lengths.
He ran a cracker in the King George at Kempton last time, fourth to Silviniaco Conti, but his jumping technique continues to give cause for concern and so is passed over in favour of On His Own.
He put up a bold, front-running display to land a second Thyestes Chase at Gowran Park last month and looks capable of at least going close.
Both Adriana Des Mottes and On His Own are trained by Willie Mullins and he also has prospects with Beluckyagain in the www.fairyhouse.ie For Special Offers Mares’ Maiden Hurdle.
She is going the right way, having taken a modest bumper at Thurles, prior to being outclassed in a much better race by Stuart Crawford’s Twentytwo’s Taken on this track.
Kalmann is a fourth Mullins possibility in a weak Irish Stallion Farms’ EBF Beginners Chase, but won’t take a lot of beating and Dessie Hughes’ Si C’Etait Vrai is preferred.
He was sure to win when falling at the final fence at Fairyhouse last time, leaving Mullins’ Suntiep in for a fortuitous success, and it is surely now or never for this luckless sort.
Mullins is the man to follow as well at Naas tomorrow, where his Mozoltov, third to Trifolium at Leopardstown on his latest appearance, is impossible to oppose in the Woodlands Park 100 Club Nas Na Riogh Novice Chase.
His Twinlight, disappointing behind Captain Chris at Kempton, is much better than that and can prove too strong for Days Hotel and Toner D’Oudaires in the Paddy Power Your Local Betting Shop Chase.
And Mullins’ Vicky de L’Oasis, who couldn’t get to grips with the 11lbs receiving Gitane du Berlais at Fairyhouse, is the hopeful choice in the Paddy Power Shops Better Value Novice Hurdle.
