IRISH hopes of regaining the St James’s Place Festival Hunters’ Chase will rest on a maximum of team of eight horses following the publication of the entries for the 2022 renewal of what is the blue ribbon on the hunter chase calendar.

Last year’s runner-up Billaway heads the Irish eight, a travelling contingent that could also include the most recent Irish winner of the race, the 2020 victor It Came To Pass, and Lord Schnitzel, who only secured his entry last Saturday.

Confirmation this week that last year’s winner Porlock Bay will not bid to defend his title following consecutive defeats this season at Chaddesley Corbett and Bangor-on-Dee, leaves Billaway, the horse that he agonisingly defeated by a short head 12 months ago as the obvious standard bearer.

Target

The race has long been a target for Billaway, with his trainer Willie Mullins recently stating: “I promised John Turner (owner) that we’d win a nice trophy for him at Cheltenham, this is the one we picked and it’s why Billaway went hunter chasing.”

One of the biggest threats to the favourite would look to also come from within the travelling team, that of David Christie’s Winged Leader who inflicted a 12-length defeat on him at Thurles in January.

“We have always looked after him because he can be a bit of boyo at times. Barry (O’Neill) makes him look easy but he is not. It has taken this time to get him to learn to relax, which he has done. He is a much more complete unit now and it has all come together,” Christie said of the 13-time winner in the point-to-point and hunter chase sphere.

Peak

“I think he is only coming to his peak, and with the way he is bred I think that the next two to three years is when he will be at his best. I don’t think we have seen his best until this season.

“It has been a deliberate plan this year to campaign him lighter and aim him for these big races in the spring time.

“At Thurles, Billaway was not the same Billaway that we know as the champion hunter chaser, so the performance was going to look better than it was, but the thing that gave me confidence is that I had only got one run in a point-to-point into my lad right back in November. I had left him with improvement to come from it and I believe that he has improved since.

Gold Cup

“It’s the Gold Cup for a man like me. I am not going make Willie (Mullins) think about any other race but Patrick will certainly be thinking about Winged Leader come Cheltenham.”

The Derrylin handler also has Vaucelet engaged in the Cheltenham hunter chase, with the pair owned by his long-time allies John Hegarty and Jennifer O’Kane.

“They are brilliant supporters of point-to-pointing and love their point-to-points. They have always been involved with me and it is just great to see them have these Cheltenham horses. They have never had a runner at the Cheltenham Festival before and that is where you always hope that you will get someday.”

A decision will be made in the coming week if the seven-year-old Vaucelet, the winner of last year’s champion hunter chase, will join his year older stablemate on the journey to Prestbury Park with the yard also set to be represented by Koshari in either the Pertemps Final or Stayers’ Hurdle.

“David (son) and I had a chat going out on the gallops in the morning about how a small yard like this at the back of Derrylin in Co Fermanagh, which is not a horse county at all, have three horses potentially going to Cheltenham. It’s an unbelievable situation to be in.”

MACS Legend may not be the oldest horse with a hunter certificate this season, however at the age of 14, he became the oldest horse to win a race during the current campaign with his wide-margin victory at Bandon on Sunday.

Unusually, the last edition of that corresponding race in 2020 also went to a 14-year-old in Drawn N Drank.

Select band

They are among a select band of 14-year-old winners in this sphere that has included the likes of Sizing Australia, Optimus Prime, Glenwood Knight, On The Fringe and Mount Colah in the past six years.

However, it is the two victories of Risk It Paddy, Powerstation and Whyso Mayo at the age of 15 that sets the benchmark the past decade, although with Macs Legend having only made his debut as a seven-year-old, perhaps he could be one to emulate the achievement next year.