FRANK WARD SOLICITORS ARKLE NOVICE CHASE (GRADE 1)

THE shortest priced favourite for the weekend’s Grade 1 action duly delivered as Footpad made it a perfect three from three over fences with one of his trademark free-flowing displays.

Only four rivals took up the challenge of tackling the country’s top two-mile novice and the only one to mount a meaningful challenge was Footpad’s old foe Petit Mouchoir.

This time Footpad was the stronger but connections of Petit Mouchir will surely be heartened by his return from a setback that had kept him off the track since October.

From the outset of the race, Paul Townend sent Footpad to the front and Petit Mouchoir stayed in close proximity while the gap to the remainder grew ever bigger as the race wore on. Footpad’s jumping was the usual mix of bold, clever and polished whereas the second placed made a couple of early mistakes as he tried to match strides with Willie Mullins’ exceptional jumper.

From the third last Footpad maintained a useful lead over his chief rival and once he recovered almost immediately from a slight peck on landing at the last, victory was assured for the Simon Munir and Isaac Souede-owned runner.

Petit Mouchoir stuck to his task well on the run-in but his effort came up five lengths short. Any Second Now came through to finish 19 lengths off the front pair in third.

“He’s done that well. He had to go out and make his own running but he has no trouble going a good gallop as he’s a horse that would two and a half miles every day of the week,” commented Mullins.

“If he got a lead it wouldn’t do him any harm but if he keeps winning like that we’ll be happy.

“Initially we were looking at him as a two and a half-mile chaser but he was electric from the first day he jumped fences and when you’ve a horse that jumps like that you can go any trip.”

The runner-up posted a fine effort as it was his first run for a number of months and he did make a couple of notable errors and this race represented a vastly greater test than what he faced on his jumping debut back in October. This effort points to his chances at Cheltenham.

“He made a couple of mistakes but it was his first run for a while and he was fresh too and those couple of mistakes put manners on him,” stated Davy Russell.

“It’s a little disappointing as at the start of the season we thought that we might have the best two-mile novice chaser but there’s one better than our horse.”