Chanelle Pharma Novice Hurdle (Grade 1)

WHEN it comes to this race it generally pays to look no further than Willie Mullins and that was again the case as Asterion Forlonge continued his striking if still very brief novice hurdling career.

The Marie Donnelly-owned grey made hard work of winning a Thurles bumper a few months ago but in early January he produced a rather taking effort to run out a 10-length winner of a Naas maiden hurdle over two miles. The six-year-old could yet make a late play for leading honours in the novice division and that view was borne out by this defeat of Easywork.

Similar to another Mullins-trained grey who won this race in 2013, the subsequent Supreme Novices’ Hurdle hero Champagne Fever, Asterion Forlonge was once viewed as a staying type. However, his relentless and unfaltering style looks well suited to the demands of two miles which could see him emerge as perhaps his trainer’s strongest contender for the Cheltenham Festival opener.

Favourite

Ultimately this race concerned just two horses as Asterion Forlonge and the favourite Easywork matched strides up front from the outset. The latter looked as though he might be travelling marginally the better nearing the turn in but Asterion Forlonge, who was crediting Danny Mullins with another big race success, had any amount left in reserve. He shook off Easywork shortly after straightening up and he kept on strongly to pull nine and a half lengths clear of that rival.

Surprised

“He’s surprised me, I had him down as a two-and-three-quarter-mile or three-mile horse but it looks like I’m wrong. He looks like a two-miler and he is a horse with a great cruising speed who covers a huge amount of ground,” remarked Mullins who was winning this race for the seventh time in eight years.

“I told Danny to go out and make the running. I told him he wasn’t making the running for my other horses, I told him he was making his own running and to try and get the fractions right. I suppose now we have to look at him as a Supreme Novices’ horse. That was the furthest thing from my mind a few weeks ago but he’s a horse that we have always liked at home,” added the trainer.