Willie Mullins wins seventh Hennessy Gold Cup

Kempes

It was not looking a good week for Willie Mullins.

On Friday one of his stable stars was ruled out for the season and had just watched two favourites beaten in Grade One races at Leopardstown.

The trainer was not very confident about the chances of Kempes in the fourth Grade One on the card, the Hennessy Gold Cup, but then found himself lifting the trophy for a seventh time and thinking about a challenge for the totesport Cheltenham Gold Cup next month.

Cooldine had been expected to be the stable’s No.1 contender for the race, until breaking down in is wind just 24 hours beforehand. Kempes, whom Tony McCoy had elected not to ride for retaining owner JP McManus because the jockey felt he had better opportunities at what was the abandoned meeting at Newbury, was expected to find the testing conditions too much for him despite being regarded as one of the class acts in the field of nine.

The heavy ground came made –to-measure for the British-trained runners Money Trix and The Listener, the winner of this race three years ago. The Listener, running in Ireland for the 14th time, took up the pace from early on with Let Yourself Go but Money Trix had sadly run his race not long after jumping the sixth. He was pulled up by Davy Russell, having broken down badly with what turned out to be a broken leg, and was put down.

Heading out for the final circuit The Listener and China Rock setting a pace that did not look harsh from the grandstand but was slowly turning the screw, letting the deep ground complete the job of drawing the stamina from their rivals. Let Yourself Go had already gone and the others were at least five lengths off the lead.

The pursuers had closed by the run to the final open ditch which China Rock pulled clear of The Listner, who was beginning to struggle. Kempes was still only fifth jumping the second-last but then he began to cut down the leader’s advantage by the home turn.

David Casey sat quietly in the saddle on Kempes, not wanting to ask too much too soon. Joncol, last year’s winner, and Glencove Marina were trying to get into contention but Kempes had a length to spare over the last, from where Casey drove his horse to the line for a four-and-a-half-length win over Glencove Marina, with Joncol the same distance in third but there was a sad postscript to the race when Glencove Marina collapsed and died shortly after crossing the line.

The Listener was a well-beaten last of the seven finishers and retired by his trainer, Nick Mitchell but few would have listened to those who believed that Kempes could be a realistic Gold Cup challenger. But Mullins now has grounds for hope with the eight-year-old, especially with the prospect of better ground at Cheltenham. "I'm delighted for the horse and owner but especially for David Casey who has been part of the team for a long time,” Mullins said.

Mullins won this race four times with Florida Pearl, whose best effort in three attempts in the Gold Cup was a five-length second to Looks Like Trouble in 2000, and he admitted to be taken aback by the way that Kempes had acted on the ground. “I was certainly surprised how he handled the testing ground. I was hoping that, with a clear round, he may have too much speed for the others and turned out to be the case. We’ll go for the Gold Cup now. The better ground will really suit him.”

Unaccompanied lived up to her name when she came home one-and-a-half clear in the Grade One Tote Jackpot Races 3-6 Spring Juvenile Hurdle. Dermot Weld’s filly, who has won an ordinary maiden hurdle at Punchestown in December, made a decent field look fairly ordinary without Paul Townend appearing to be drawing too deeply on her reserves.

Townend has a quiet style of riding but he was not required to become particularly vigorous as Unaccompanied ghosted through the field to take the lead coming to the last flight and came readily away from Sailors Wan.

Unaccompanied has entries for both the Stan James Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and the JCB Triumph Hurdle, a race which Weld won with Rare Holiday in 1990, and the trainer said that she would stick to the juvenile division.

Paul Wheeler

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