Gold Dancer completes Grade 3 clean sweep for Mullins and Townend Willie Mullins and Paul Townend completed a clean sweep of all three Graded races on the afternoon, as Gold Dancer readily justified favouritism in the Grade 3 ODS Engineering Novice Chase at Tipperary. Leading from halfway, Gold Dancer only had Downmexicoway for company after jumping the third last fence. Darragh O'Keeffe drew alongside on the latter approaching the penultimate fence but the writing was soon on the wall. A slicker jump from Gold Dancer saw the 4/9f soon assert and drew clear. Quickening away before the last, Gold Dancer was eased on the run-in to score by eight-lengths. Paul Townend said: “He likes jumping and the drying ground here suited him. It’s a joy to ride him and for a novice to be so sure of himself jumping, it was great fun out there. “I’d say a bigger fence and a more galloping track will only improve him. He’ll have stiffer tasks ahead, and I thought cantering back that he deserves to line up in the Drinmore. That would look an obvious place to enter him.” Additional reporting by Alan Magee.
