Ceol Rua can hit right note
The six-year-old was well backed at Punchestown last month and went off favourite. She didn’t deliver, however, finishing three parts of a length and the same third behind Make A Track and Reizovic.
The selection still had a chance rising to the final flight, but ballooned the obstacle and was soon struggling to get in a real blow.
She did, though, stay on strongly in the closing stages and the form has been working out quite nicely.
Make A Track was runner-up behind the smart Texas Jack at Clonmel last Thursday, while Reizovic proved an easy winner at Naas on Saturday.
Ruby Walsh partners Ceol Rua and he can also team up with Mullins to take the Fairyhouse Membership 2012 Maiden Hurdle with Sous Les Cieux.
He arrived from France with a big reputation and made his Irish debut on this track in January.
Sous Les Cieux went off long odds-on, but proved a costly failure, going under by two and a half lengths to 33-1 shot Bayross.
The form is very ordinary, but the selection was found to have a stress fracture after the race and has to be given the benefit of the doubt, in what is a modest affair.
Mullins could also have the answer to the Bumper with Are Ya Right Chief, sixth behind the useful Golanbrook at Punchestown in May.
Noel Meade’s point-to-point winner, Please Talk, and Jessica Harrington’s Celtic Cailin, a promising third at Wexford, are dangers.
Edward O’Grady’s unbeaten Staying Article can complete a hat-trick in the Fairyhouse Premier National Hunt Hurdle.
Successful by 14 lengths in a Punchestown bumper, he then dug deep to collar Rivage D’Or in a maiden hurdle at Naas.
Staying Article has to overcome an absence of 371 days, but O’Grady’s horses are in good order right now and fitness is hardly a major concern.
