RYANAIR CHASE

(GRADE 1)

HE dominated the headlines at the start of the week before a race was even run and when he did get the chance to once again show his worth on the track, Vautour produced yet another towering effort at a meeting for which he has long reserved his best.

Ever since his King George near miss, the anticipation surrounding Vautour’s expected Gold Cup bid was palpable and generated no small amount of debate, but then on Tuesday morning came the news that he was Ryanair Chase-bound.

The late u-turn was both contentious and controversial but lacklustre showings in his work led to connections opting for a Ryanair bid instead of a long awaited quest for gold.

With the memory of his wondrous JLT victory still fresh in the memory, one wondered what we could expect from Vautour on this occasion. The answer was a resounding one as the Susannah Ricci-owned gelding toyed with his rivals. Inevitably, in the aftermath of this triumph, questions turned to what might have happened had Vautour run in the Gold Cup.

That will remain a subject of some conjecture for another year but, just as he did on the corresponding day last year, Vautour turned up in all his glory. The hope is that in 2017 he will be Gold Cup-bound and that is a prospect to savour as this seven-year-old possesses the sort of style and swagger which only a few of jumping’s elite can lay claim to.

Sent off the evens favourite to become the first Irish-trained winner of this race since its inception in 2005, Vautour was settled just in behind the leaders by Ruby Walsh. He travelled nicely and jumped well all the way and it was beginning to look quite ominous for his rivals when he led coming away from the fourth last

A game Road To Riches did his utmost to get the favourite off the bridle but he could simply do no more from the second last fence as Vautour eased clear.

Walsh only needed to nudge his mount along from the last as stablemate Valseur Lido came through to finish a six lengths second. Road To Riches was a further half length back to make it a two-three for race sponsor Michael O’Leary.

GOLD CUP HORSE

“He hasn’t been delighting me in his work. I think he’s a Gold Cup horse but he wasn’t working like one. The drying ground was a huge help and maybe he was just fed up with winter ground,” reflected Willie Mullins.

“He had a hard race at Kempton in the King George and it took him ages and ages to come right. We tried everything with him the last few weeks. I just said to Ruby going out make it 51 winners please, not believing that he could produce a performance like that.”

Mullins continued: “He wasn’t working anything like a Gold Cup horse. The more work we gave him the worse he was getting and in the last 10 days we changed everything – the way we ride him, the way we train him, the tack we use on him and I threw him out in the field. The only stable he has been in for the last 10 days were the two nights he’s been here. It was a last ditch effort to get him here.

“If he hadn’t come here last year and won the way he did we may well have pulled the plug.

“I would say that to everyone in the yard, the way he’s won has come as a surprise. Dermot who rides him said that he was starting to spark here and take a hold which he hadn’t done at all since Christmas. He must have a huge engine to do that on the prep he came here with.

“Usually we like to bring all our best horses to Punchestown, so I don’t know what I’ll do about Aintree. I wouldn’t rule it out and if he did go there I’d say it would be for the Melling Chase, but I’d rather go to Punchestown. Valseur Lido ran a fantastic race but he needs a trip,” concluded Mullins.

Ruby Walsh admitted that he would have left Vautour at home rather than bring him back for a third successive festival.

“This morning when I rode him for the first time since the King George he felt alive. That’s probably the wrong way to describe it but there was power there and there was hunger in him.

“If I was training him, and thank God I’m not, he would have been at home,” declared Walsh.