Leopardstown next for Fly
Willie Mullins’ slick two-miler has not been the easiest horse to train and lost his Champion Hurdle crown to Rock On Ruby last March.
He bounced back at the Punchestown Festival and returned to the Co Kildare course on Sunday for the Dobbins & Madigans @ Punchestown Morgiana Hurdle.
Hurricane Fly ended up beating Captain Cee Bee by 12 lengths but the three-runner event ceased to be a contest when Go Native fell at the final flight when very much still in touch.
“I was more than happy with the run and he seems absolutely fine today,” said Mullins. “I’d say he will probably go to Leopardstown after Christmas now.”
Another of the useful but more fragile individuals at Mullins’ Bagenalstown stable, Tarla, is also reported to be in good health.
The Ricci family’s mare has won five of her six starts since moving from France and recently took successive Grade Threes over hurdles and fences.
Mullins said: “Tarla’s fine, she was out this morning, but I haven’t quite made any plans for her. I’d say I will be looking at the chase programme.”
Noel Meade has not totally ruled out a crack at Newcastle’s StanJames.com Fighting Fifth Hurdle with Go Native despite his fall on Sunday.
The Morgiana was Go Native’s first run over jumps since the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham in March 2010, although he did have two pipeopeners on the Flat last month.
“We’ll probably run him at Christmas, but we won’t rule anything out just yet,” Meade told At The Races.
“We’ll see how he is. There’s a fortnight before the Fighting Fifth (December 1). Obviously he had a heavy fall, but he slid along the ground, so he didn’t take the brunt of it.
“If he was OK I wouldn’t rule out Newcastle. I’m not saying he will go there, we’ll just leave the door open.
“He seems fine. he got up straight away and was OK this morning, but we might just get the physio in to have a look and make sure and check him out.
“It was one of those things, that’s racing. It’s the good jumpers that have a cut at them who unfortunately go down. He was just a couple of inches too low, caught the top of it and came down.
“They were both going nicely at the time. He was going to be in the first two anyway!
“We had more or less given up on him. It’s just fantastic to have him back and racing up at that level.
“He’s run into Hurricane Fly a couple of times and never been able to match him, but he would have given him something to do yesterday. Whether he would have won, I don’t know.
“To be upsides Hurricane Fly and giving him a race was very pleasing.”
Meanwhile, Oscars Well is said to be “sound but sore” following his heavy fall at Punchestown on Sunday.
The Grade One-winning hurdler was sent off 8-15 favourite to win for a second time over fences but took a nasty tumble at the second obstacle in the Craddockstown Novice Chase won by Twinlight.
Oscars Well managed to get out of the racecourse and onto a road briefly before being caught.
“He’s sound but he’s a bit sore. It was the fall that made him sore, it was a hell of a fall,” said his trainer Jessica Harrington.
“He took off onto the road as well but it was just the fall that made him very sore.
“We’ll leave him this week and see how he is before thinking what to do with him next.”
Road To Riches could step straight into Grade One company following his impressive hurdling debut at Punchestown on Sunday.
The five-year-old, owned by the Gigginstown House Stud, justified prohibitive odds of 1-6 in tremendous style with a cosy success over another promising sort in the Willie Mullins-trained Pride Of the Parish.
Trainer Noel Meade is now eyeing the Barry And Sandra Kelly Memorial Novice Hurdle at Navan next month.
“He’s a really nice horse. We’ve run him twice and he’s won twice. He’s a very exciting horse and more of a chaser for next season than this,” said Meade.
“So far so good, we’ll probably take him to Navan for the Barry Kelly race and if that happened, he’ll probably run into one of Willie’s (Mullins) good ones and there’s a few other nice ones might turn up.
“That will tell us a bit more if we go there and where we are going to go.”
