Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase (Grade 1)

WILLIE Mullins has never hidden his massive belief in Fact To File and the strapping chaser justified that faith in spades when producing a performance full of quality to land the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase.

It was a bold and unorthodox call from connections of the J.P. McManus-owned seven-year-old to go straight over fences this term after just one season in bumpers, though it was following a similar path to Mullins’ top-class Florida Pearl in the late 1990s.

While Florida Pearl completed the Champion Bumper-Royal & SunAlliance Chase double in back-to-back seasons, Fact To File found only A Dream To Share too good in last year’s Champion Bumper and managed to go one better on his second visit to Cheltenham.

Ridden by Mark Walsh, the 8/13 favourite jumped with bravery and showed plenty of scope to go long at his obstacles. He always travelled smoothly and showed a bit too much pace on his first try at three miles for gallant runner-up Monty’s Star, trained by Henry de Bromhead.

Three and three quarters of a length separated the pair at the line, but the manner in which Fact To File hit the line and went to the pull-up boards was especially taking on such demanding ground.

“He’s just a real gentleman of a horse, and definitely a Gold Cup horse in the making,” said Mullins.

“I felt he was a ready-made steeplechaser from the first day he came into the yard, so that’s why we skipped hurdling with him. I’m very happy we did that with him now, and I think J.P. had a nice wager on him for this race for the staff at the start of the season.

Bold jumping

“He made the decision and took all responsibility away from me to do that, so I’m delighted for the staff as well. It’s been a wonderful day. He’s a beautiful jumper and gave Mark a tremendous ride. I’d say it was some thrill riding him around there.”

Walsh added: “I didn’t want to get there too soon, being his first time over the trip, but he winged the last two and galloped on up the hill.

“This is a class horse. He has some class. It was the right decision by J.P. and Frank [Berry] to go straight to chasing. Hopefully we have a good one on our hands.”

The big disappointment of the race was last year’s Albert Bartlett winner Stay Away Fay, though an excuse for the run appeared when scoping dirty post-race.

On Monty’s Star, de Bromhead said: “I think we lost little in defeat and I think he’s improving all the time. He’s a really exciting horse for us, and we’ll start at the Gold Cup and work backwards from there - the Mindello Indo route. He’s seven, but he’s a big raw horse and I think he’ll go on improving.”