On a St Stephen’s Day when the €850 purchase Hewick pulled off an unlikely King George VI Chase success at Kempton, the prospect of Gordon Elliott finally managing to dethrone Willie Mullins as Ireland’s champion trainer this season seemed anything but far-fetched.
Found A Fifty’s victory in the final Grade One Racing Post Novice Chase was the highlight of a 53-1 hat-trick for Elliott at Leopardstown where, for once, Mullins drew a blank.
Elliott had earlier reached 150 winners for the season in Ireland when Kala Conti landed the Grade Two Mercedes Juvenile Hurdle and wound-up day one of the Christmas action considerably closer to €3 million in prize money for the season.
Having finished runner-up to Mullins for a decade, the Co Meath trainer currently has both momentum and a sizable lead over his old rival, enough to have some bookmakers offering just 5-2 about a changing of the championship guard by season’s end in April.
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It’s a scenario that seemed particularly remote just a couple of years ago when Elliott served a six-month suspension over an infamous image that emerged online.
However, with Christmas wishes conspiring to give the ‘Shark’ Hanlon-trained Hewick a dramatic King George, emerging from the clouds to nail Bravemansgame and Allaho after hitting 550-1 ‘in running’ the Elliott camp is entitled to dream.
Elliott had earlier got a sore reminder of how racing fortunes fluctuate when his Farren Glory looked to throw away a Grade One at Aintree with a fall at the second last. But any presumptions about Mullins starting some inevitable catch-up this week are starting to look shaky.
That got underlined in Leopardstown’s feature which won’t be run in 2024 due to Horse Racing Ireland plans for a restructure of Grade One races. It leaves Found A Fifty assured of a little slice of history as the last winner of Leopardstown’s traditional St Stephen’s Day feature.
He may be far from finished in the landmark stakes too, as he did a lot of things wrong through the race before ultimately emerging a decisive winner.
Mullins’s 1-2 favourite Facile Vega proved a bitter disappointment and finished last of the four runners after Found A Fifty’s wayward progress admittedly did him few favours.
The winner jinking around, and jumping to his right, hardly affected Facile Vega more, though, and 10-1 odds about Found A Fifty for Cheltenham’s Arkle didn’t strike as a typically stingy ante-post reaction.
“He’s very quirky but he’s got a massive engine,” admitted Elliott. “He was actually the highest-rated novice chaser in England or Ireland coming into the race today. But there is a quirk in him – most good ones have a little bit of a quirk.”
Jockey Jack Kennedy, who kicked off Elliott’s hat-trick on King Of Kingsfield, reported that Patrick Mullins opting to switch Facile Vega to his inside worked to help keep his horse straight in the closing stages.
Kennedy picked wrong in the Juvenile Hurdle as Mighty Bandit faded badly in the straight, leaving teenager Danny Gilligan to secure a first Graded success on Kala Conti.
The filly rode her luck with a chancy jump at the last but Gilligan, 17, who burst to prominence with Galway Plate glory on Ash Tree Meadow in the summer, made light of not being able to employ his 5lb claim.
“The only worry I had was at the last, she kind of stretched for it and was lucky to find a leg at the back of it,” Gilligan reported.
Edward O’Grady enjoyed his own period of dominance as champion trainer in the 1970s and 80s but has struggled to get his hands on a good horse in recent years.
The 74-year-old finally looks to have got his hands on one, however, after No Flies On Him made a big impression on his debut in the festival opener.
“I’ve had a lot of swans in the last few years and they’ve all turned out to be geese. But I think this fella might stay a swan,” O’Grady said.
No action was taken by the stewards after a nasty incident at the final fence of the handicap chase when Path D’oroux collided in the air with the winner, The Folkes Tiara, and came down.
Both the horse and rider Keith Donoghue were unhurt and the stewards didn’t apportion blame to either Donoghue or winning jockey Rachael Blackmore.
Path D’oroux’s trainer Gavin Cromwell also had to settle for second in Leopardstown’s feature but saddled a St Stephen’s Day hat-trick of his own with a pair of winners at Down Royal and one in Limerick.
Out of luck at Leopardstown, and with Allaho in Kempton, Mullins still managed to hit the mark twice at Limerick.
Seán O’Keeffe did the honours on the 9-4 favourite Loughglynn in the Grade Two feature, and also on Bunting in the opener.
An official attendance of 16,954 was up over 1,000 from last year’s St Stephen’s Day crowd of 15,797, which was the first post-pandemic Christmas festival when unrestricted crowds were allowed.
