Last season’s Triumph Hurdle winner Majborough will take to fences for the first time in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Beginners Chase at Fairyhouse on Saturday.
The four-year-old, who is trained by Willie Mullins and owned by JP McManus, was victorious at the Cheltenham festival in March when defeating stablemate Kargese by 1½ lengths.
He returns to action over fences having always been considered a chaser in the making, and will contest a race used to good effect by his powerhouse yard in the past, as El Fabiolo and Blue Lord are previous winners.
“We’ve been very happy with him, obviously we’ve decided to go chasing with him this year rather than hurdling,” said Patrick Mullins, assistant to his father.
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“Physically, he’s reminiscent of [twice Cheltenham Gold Cup runner-up] Djakadam, who was also a juvenile hurdler. He’s been schooling very well and he’s hugely exciting. He’s not your typical juvenile, he’d be nearly 17 hands, so he’s a big, tall horse and though he’s not as heavy as Djakadam, his whole build screams chaser.”
Tullyhill also represents Closutton, a horse who was second in the 2023 Punchestown Champion Bumper and won twice over hurdles last season before failing to fire in the Supreme and then the Champion Novice back at Punchestown.
He too takes to fences for the first time and has some experience in the discipline, as he was a winner on his sole point-to-point start.
“He perhaps didn’t show his full potential last year as a novice hurdler, but he was a winning point-to-pointer before that,” Mullins said of the Cheveley Park Stud-owned grey.
“His work has been really good and we’re hoping jumping fences is going to bring out the best in him.”
Meanwhile, at Cheltenham on Friday, Keith Donoghue produced Stumptown with a perfectly timed run and then held off the late thrust of Mister Coffey to add yet another victory over the cross-country fences.
Donoghue has won four of the last six versions of the Glenfarclas-sponsored race at the festival in March after three triumphs on Tiger Roll and last season’s victory on Delta Work.
Stumptown, trained by Cheltenham regular Gavin Cromwell, was sent off the 4-1 favourite having bounced back to form with two wins over the Punchestown banks course of late.
In true Donoghue style, he was ridden quietly early on but he still had plenty of ground to make up when last year’s winner Latenightpass joined Escaria Ten before the turn for home.
He was travelling ominously well, though, and on the run to the last obstacle breezed in between the two, looking sure to coast home.
However, Nico de Boinville conjured up a late thrust from Mister Coffey, also second over the fences in November, and Donoghue had to briefly ride his mount out to win by a length.
“You’d have to be delighted with that and Vanillier [ninth] ran well too. Stumptown absolutely loves it and it’s obviously a huge asset to have Keith on board ... There was a little concern as Stumptown has been around Punchestown a few times now and is very good at the banks and it is a different discipline here with the hedges. We were hoping that he would take to it and he’s taken to it well.
“We said we’d try it at the Punchestown festival as we thought the handicapper had hit his max and it seems to have brought around a new lease of life for him. It’s unbelievable, he’s grown legs for it.”
Returning to Cheltenham for the festival is an obvious target and Cromwell will also now consider a crack at the Grand National.
He added: “That [Grand National] would definitely be on the agenda. We thought we’d try the cross-country route with Vanillier too as he’s getting a little bit older and he seemed to enjoy it, so he could come back here for the cross-country at the festival as well.”
