Vautour blows away his rivals in Cheltenham JLT romp
“When you win a novice chase, running away by 15 lengths, it has to be up there with one of the best performances ever,” said trainer Willie Mullins, after witnessing a display of unrelenting brilliance.
Ruby Walsh, confident of his mount, set off in front, giving Vautour a clear sight of all obstacles, and he simply jumped for fun. Such was the exuberance with which the well-backed favourite attacked his fences, he drew applause from the crowd on more than one occasion during a flawless round.
Irish Saint moved alongside mid-race but Walsh, unperturbed, allowed Vautour enjoy the company before a prodigious leap at the fourth last carried them back to the front.
It was the last rival he saw as, with three more stunning leaps, and an instant turn of foot from the back of the last, he strode majestically clear of Apache Stronghold, who battled back to deny the winner’s stable companion, Valseur Lido, the runner-up spot.
The performance, in all its glory, was vindication of Mullins’ opinion of the horse, who he touted as his best at last year’s Festival. On that occasion, he routed the opposition in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and, despite a similarly authoritative display from Faugheen in the Neptune, the trainer almost laughed off comparison.
Said Mullins: “I thought he was the best horse I had in Cheltenham last year, and when Faugheen won the Champion Hurdle, I said ‘well, I think this fellow is better’ — and he could be!
“Ruby is absolutely buzzing. He is as high as a horse after coming in there. I suppose we thought a fair bit of the horse. I thought he was my best horse here last year and he just hadn’t lived up to that this season.
“He won his first chase nicely, but disappointed at Christmas because his muscles were all wrong. We shouldn’t have run him, but he came back and won last time — it was only a three-horse race, but he did beat a Grade One winner.
“There was a lot left to do to get up to the mark he was at last year so I just got stuck into him in the last few weeks, and it paid off.
“When you do that you might break them. You are risking injury and everything like that, but it was what he needed. Resting him wasn’t going to make him any faster. He has so much ability that he is not doing anything when he is just working along with other horses. You’ve got to push him.
“I thought it was a spectacular performance.”
Mullins confirmed the winner will now join his RSA Chase winner Don Poli on the 2016 Gold Cup trail.
“We are definitely going down the Gold Cup route,” he added, delighted to have more than one string to his bow. “Well, you need them. Look at how hard it is to get chasers to that standard.
“Every year we could start off the year with 50 bumper horses and 50 hurdle horses and you are hoping you might get one Gold Cup out of that hundred.”
“He’s a machine, he has everything,” was jockey Ruby Walsh’s summary of the display.
“He’s the real deal, I think he is anyway. You could be wrong but you have to dream. I think he’s the real McCoy. I’ve always loved him. He has pace, his pedigree suggest he gets any trip, and he could be anything.
“He’s full of confidence and the hardest job I had was riding him back to the winner’s enclosure. The easy part was on the racecourse.”
Following last season’s successes in the novice hurdles, discussions began as to which of Faugheen and Vautour would go chasing and which would remain over hurdles, but Walsh was always in favour of sending this winner over the larger obstacles.
“I suppose it’s kind of unlike me (to be animated), but I stuck my neck out for this fellow to go chasing, and he has delivered,” said the delighted rider.
“I always thought he would jump fences. The very first morning he schooled, he jumped four fences and Willie asked what I thought, and I said ‘he’s too good’.”
“We had pretty frank conversation at the end of summer. I was pretty strong and I’m just glad it worked out. I could just see Willie telling me ‘Faugheen would have won that and Vautour would have won the Champion Hurdle’.
“He wasn’t right at Christmas and straight away people jumped on the bandwagon and knocked him. But Willie tipped away, the horse schooled beautifully last Saturday week at Leopardstown, did proper work last Thursday, and we knew the spark was back.
“I said to Patrick (Mullins), I think Willie has timed it perfectly. And he did.”
Owner Rich Ricci was similarly taken by the performance.
“I thought it was a good renewal but, wow, that was incredible. I can’t ever remember seeing a novice jump that way at Cheltenham.
“He clearly loves the track, he’s a different horse here. I don’t know what it is but I hope it lasts for a while. He was fantastic, breath-taking, unbelievable.
“Ruby’s always said he’s a Gold Cup horse, so I’m sure next season we’ll step up in distance and see where we go. But we’ve got tomorrow’s (Gold Cup) to go first, so hopefully we can do the business there.”
