Going - Hurdle - Soft Chase - Yielding, soft in places. Overcast and showery
Jackpot Pool - €16,296.01 Dividend - €2,375.90 Winning Units - 4.81. Placepot Pool - €39,682.42 Dividend - €12.80 Winning Units - 2169.84. Days Aggregate - €467,107.75 Last Year €127,853.72
Tekao gets Mullins off to a flyer
He took a keen hold but Mark said he was travelling well all the time,. He was happy that he had come on from his last run (third at Navan) so we're very pleased with him.
Perfect start for Dynamo over fences
He was pretty fast over the first couple of fences but then he just settled into a rhythm,. He threw in a huge jump at the first ditch down the back but then Paul seemed to pull him back and get him into a better rhythm, measured and he jumped his fences from there on home without any problems. He is what you see, he gallops and jumps. We'll just go up in grade now.
Blue Lord trounces rivals under Jacob
That was very smart, I thought they'd go too fast for him here and they did go fast. I was looking at two-and-a-half miles for him this year but it looks like he could be a Champion Chase horse after that performance. Certainly the dial is coming back to two miles now rather than going out to two-and-a-half. It just means he's improving. I haven't thought about where he goes but I'm sure there is a programme there for those two mile horses. He got a great opportunity to settle in behind those front-runners today and that brought out the best in him.
Cosy victory for Vega
I'd nearly have to give him 11 ½, I think. Plan A obviously went out the window after the first hurdle. Thankfully Il Etait Temps didn't bring him down, Paul said he was very close to it because he absolutely winged the hurdle. Then he had no lead and had to go and make his own running. He did it well, he got very free at the first hurdle down the back and took some jump at it. I was delighted to see that but I knew he couldn't keep that up. Paul got him back, got him into a slower rhythm and got him jumping better. He said he was still racing in his hands the whole way but he eventually settled for him. I think he'll learn an awful lot today. The big crowd and all the buzz before the race itself, all that will be a help for him in the future.
Five out of five for Mullins
That fella did it nicely and Kieran is a good young rider, cool kid, and he deserves a lot of the credit for it. He rides a lot of his work at home. We brought him back to two miles, he was running over longer trips last year but his homework suggested he would be capable of being competitive over two miles. I'm very pleased for his new owners (the Triple Lock Partnership) as well and we'll look forward to more handicaps with him.
McNamaras land Paddy Power thriller with Real Steel
It was brilliant the way it worked out. A huge thanks to Tadhg Moynihan, I picked him out at the sales and rang him and asked if he would buy him. He said Eric if you want him and I said 'I don't want to go home without him'. So I bought him but he paid for him. He paid for himself today. To win one of these handicaps is great. He was well handicapped if we could rekindle him, he spent two years doing nothing in England, whatever went wrong there. We changed his routine and we were always very kind to him. We brought him a few different places to work and we never took him off the bridle. We trained him like he was a real good horse and he always worked against horses that he could beat just to try and mentally get him back to where he was. He was a real good horse. He was only beaten seven-and-a-quarter lengths in a Gold Cup. I met Tadhg in Listowel one year, he was a great friend of Sean Currans', and we've been great friends ever since. He always said he'd love to win the Kerry National so I bought this fella to try and win it. He'll be there next year but this will do!. Conor gave him a great ride and did everything right so it's fantastic.
Bumper winner completes Leopardstown six-timer for Mullins
That fella took all day to get going. He was one of the favourite horses I bought last year, I loved him from the day he came,. He does things a little more slowly than other horses but he got the job done. That experience today, especially what he did in the last 100 yards, will stand to him. I think he might make a half decent bumper horse before he goes jumping. It's been an extraordinary day, our planning department at home deserves all the credit for this, putting the horses in the right races and having them right. Between David Casey, Ruby (Walsh) and Patrick picking out different horses for different races and then just getting ready for the race, it's a huge team effort. Ben Delmar, who is our head travelling man, getting them all right. Getting the right numbers on the right horses in the Paddy Power is a feat in itself. I have to thank everyone, especially owners as without them we wouldn't be here. A huge thanks to them for having faith in us to have days like this.
