Diverge and High Definition, two of the favorites, faced off in an intense rumble at the recent Dublin Racing Festival, with Diverge winning by a wide margin in the opening race at the Punchestown course map on Monday.
Derby favorite High Definition was off to a great start to his racing career at Leopardstown over the holiday period. Diverge ended up beaten 20 lengths into the 6th place by our favorite High Definition on what happened to have been his Irish debut no less, scoring 10-11 and setting quite a pace for trainer Willie Mullins in Punchestown’s Best Odds Guaranteed All Races Maiden hurdle.
Mullins is possibly considering a tilt at the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham Fest due to the five year old Frankel pulling a whopping 23 lengths clear of his nearest pursuer Mon Coeur. The champion’s trainer stated that he thinks he did well and improved a bunch from the previous day. He also added that they changed their tactics around as he was very free in Leopardstown. (Xanax) He talked to Paul Townend and told him that he shouldn’t be fighting the horse too much.
Another thing he noted was that they had initially thought there would be enough pace in the race, but that the horse just seemed to aim for jumping past Danny Mullins on Stellium, so Paul let him have at it and enjoy himself, since the fella has clearly demonstrated a love for jumping. Conclusively, he finished it off with the thought that they are probably looking at the Supreme seeing as how he has entries at Cheltenham, since any horse that manages to win his maiden by an entire 23 lengths on his second run is more than eligible for it and has thus secured himself a solid place on the team.
The Closutton Racing Club handler Paul Townend told us a bit more about Diverge, stating that while he didn’t have much to do with him in regards to training, he thinks he will continue to improve and get better as time goes on, being proud of his lovely attitude, immense ability at jumping on the field, and simple steady pace (as in not charging too wildly, but keeping calm) which enabled the handler to keep it as simple as he could. He added that every time that he gave him a little dip he was really impressing him with his abilities.
At 4-11 to win, Sir Argus was the favorite, right under Townend, but was reeled in on the run-in by 7-2 chance Haxo and the aforementioned Danny Mullins who was in the midst of a double himself, following a riveting victory riding the amazing Princess Zoe who happened to have been trained by his father Tony.
Willie Mullins pitched into the conversation, saying that he thinks Haxo deserved the win for jumping and that’s exactly what got him the victory in the long run, noting that he’s a second season novice and jumping really well for those standards. Moreover, he said that he has high hopes as he seems to be a chaser in the making. He also made a comment about Sir Argus saying that he thinks he seemed to lose his confidence after his previous fall on the final day in Clonmel. They have given him plenty of training and lessons, but he seems to not have his traditional confidence on the race track anymore.
Things can get intense on the racetrack!
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