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Grade 1 winning hurdler Bapaume opened his account over fences to complete a Naas treble for Willie Mullins and Paul Townend on Monday.
The six-year-old has kept good company ever since arriving from France three years ago, with his top-level success at the 2017 Punchestown Festival supplemented by a string of fine efforts in defeat.
Bapaume disappointed when a hot favourite to make a winning start to his chasing career at Fairyhouse last month, but he got it right in the Kildare Post & Kildare Now Beginners Chase – travelling strongly on the front end throughout and winning with plenty in hand.
Townend said of the 5/4 market leader: “He’s electric to jump. He jumps nearly as well as any two-miler, and we know he stays from his hurdling days.
“He’s not the biggest in the world, but he has loads to scope. He’ll have to build on that again, but he brings a high level of hurdles form to chasing as well.”
Mullins and Townend had earlier teamed up to score with both Yukon Lil and Tiger Tap Tap.
Yukon Lil was the 4/7 favourite for the Clinton Higgins Chartered Accountants Mares Maiden Hurdle – and while she did not entirely convince in the jumping department, she came home with 12 lengths in hand.
“She always works well at home and she showed it there,” said Townend.
“She needs a bit of practice hurdling. We only jumped four there, and we’ll get a bit more into her at home.
“I think she can be a good novice hurdle mare. She put that to bed very quickly and she couldn’t have been any more impressive for me.”
Tiger Tap Tap obliged as an even-money shot in the 2020 Naas Membership Maiden Hurdle.
Ninth in the Triumph Hurdle at last season’s Cheltenham Festival, the four-year-old made the most of this drop in class with an authoritative display.
Townend said: “He was entitled to win it. He was keen early on and had to work for it in the end, but it will do him the world of good to get his head in front.
“He had a very hard race on his first run last year, and it took him a while to get over it.
“There might be a little bit still to work with. I’d say he could probably end up going back on the Flat at some stage.”
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