MULLINS IS STARTING TO FIRE

Karl Hedley reviews a busy December in Ireland

Longhouse Poet was well fancied to land his maiden hurdle when partnered by Derek O’Connor in the second race on the Navan card in December. He had won his bumper in good style at Punchestown back in the Spring, seeing off the attentions of Monkfish by two and a half lengths.

At Navan he was always travelling smoothly before the straight and he jumped with aplomb for trainer Martin Brassil to comment, “He looks a big, nice horse.

“We’ll probably make an entry with him in the Grade One at Naas and that would be an ideal place. Derek seemed to be quite impressed with him. He won his point to point and bumper on him. He’s a horse to look forward to.”

The following day saw a return to Grade One action at Punchestown with the John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Steeplechase run over two and a half miles as the feature race.

Min was a warm order for Willie Mullins, Paul Townend and owner Rich Ricci. Having led at the start, the eight-year-old seemed to make errors throughout the race. He recovered nicely enough in the end though to keep Hardline and Presenting Percy at bay. His handler was full of praise for him afterwards saying, “I thought it was an unbelievable performance coming after three mistakes. I think he wanted to go faster. To come back from what I thought was certain defeat after the second-last was very good. He picked up and threw a huge leap at the last and was going away in the end.

“I think he can jump way better than that and can improve for the run. He can go over two miles or two and a half.”