RYANAIR GOLD CUP

NOVICE CHASE

(GRADE 1)

AFTER Al Boum Photo ended Willie Mullins’ seemingly interminable wait for a first success in this race, the champion trainer promptly followed up with Voix Du Reve who provided owners Andrea and Graham Wylie with a welcome change in fortune after a trying season.

high-profile

The Wylies had lost several high-profile horses over the last couple of months but in Voix Du Reve they have a fresh Grade 1 winner to carry their distinctive black and beige silks after the seven-year-old put some jumping tribulations behind him.

On his previous two outings Voix Du Reve had come to grief in the Irish Arkle and the JLT at Cheltenham, but he was most assured here as he relished every inch of this two-and-a-half-mile trip.

Ruby Walsh, who hadn’t won this race since he struck aboard Big-And-Bold in 2002, rode Voix Du Reve who tracked the front-running Mengli Khan from the outset.

When Walsh’s mount took over the lead with four to jump, Mengli Khan was a spent force and Real Steel was left as the only meaningful challenger in the straight.

However, Real Steel could never get close enough to land a telling blow and he went down by five and a half lengths, with Winter Escape some 25 lengths back in third. Mengli Khan finished last of the four finishers after his stablemate Cubomania sadly met with a fatal fall at the fourth last.

delighted

“I’m delighted for Graham and Andrea as they haven’t had the luckiest of seasons and it’s great to get a Grade 1 for them,” reflected Mullins. “This horse is bred to stay further but in his own mind he was a two-miler and he was very keen in his earlier races. As he has started to settle better he has been able to move up in trip and looking at the way he finished there he might even stay a bit further.

“We’ll just see how he comes out of this but Punnchestown would be the plan for him and Real Steel. I was very pleased with how Real Steel stayed on.

“He didn’t look to be enjoying the ground but he kept on well as he loosened up and he’s one who will definitely be going up in trip. Hopefully, he will go to Punchestown too.”