TATTERSALLS IRELAND SPRING JUVENILE HURDLE (GRADE 1)

A RACE that drew together three of the four best juveniles in the country produced perhaps the finish of the weekend and concluded with Mr Adjudicator significantly enhancing his claims as one of the leading lights of his division.

The Willie Mullins-trained son of Camacho began his jumping career with a fine victory here over Christmas. Here he faced just four rivals but this promised to be altogether tougher as the hitherto unbeaten Espoir D’Allen was lying in wait and so too was the promising once-raced hurdler Farclas.

The latter ultimately gave the Paul Townend-ridden winner a thoroughly exacting examination but Mr Adjudicator (3/1) showed the sort of qualities that will surely stand him in excellent stead for Cheltenham. Espoir D’Allen ran some way below his best and, having raced quite freely from early, he finished a well-held fourth.

PRESSURE

From the third last the stage was set as the odds-on Espoir D’Allen led from Farclas with the David Bobbet-owned Mr Adjudicator having moved into a close third. The market leader was a spent force turning in and Farclas then edged ahead but he was already under pressure to fend off the oncoming Mr Adjudicator.

To their considerable credit, the leading duo then kept quickening up in a protracted battle for supremacy. Both horses flew the last but in the final 150 yards Mr Adjudicator pulled out that bit more to carry the day by a length and a quarter. There was a gap of 16 lengths back to the third-placed Grey Waters.

“It was a fantastic ride by Paul. He dropped him and got him settled lovely and, while he wasn’t sure how well he was travelling, he didn’t set him alight too early and kept a bit in hand,” stated Mullins. “The first two are two good horses, they both flew the last and then our horse’s stamina kicked in.

“The Triumph looks the obvious race for him and I think our horse is a good horse and he’s taken care of some highly rated opponents there. I was very taken with how he jumped.”