Mulligan to seize main chance

Racing

GREG WOOD

's administrators have soaked up plenty of punishment recently, in particular from aggrieved sponsors, so it seems only fair to offer a little praise for their latest victory in the face of the elements.

Just a few years ago, the Reynoldstown Chase card at Ascot, due to be run last Wednesday, would have been abandoned to the frost with little more than a shrug of the shoulders. Now, thanks to the BHB's intelligent policy of rescheduling major meetings, several prime Festival contenders get the chance to run, for serious money too, and punters can enjoy a card of exceptional quality.

Apart from the Reynoldstown itself, in which four of the first seven in the betting for the Sun Alliance Chase will meet each other, there is Sound Man, the favourite for the Champion Chase, in the pounds 50,000 Comet Chase, some of our best staying hurdlers in the three-mile handicap, and several Champion Hurdle outsiders in a race laid on just for their benefit.

As Noel Chance, who will saddle Mr Mulligan in the Reynoldstown Chase, said yesterday: "It's the best day's racing at Ascot since the summer." Some may feel that he is being over-generous to the Royal meeting.

Mr Mulligan and St Mellion Fairway (who has been entered in the Gold Cup as well) are currently 6-1 joint-favourites with William Hill for the Sun Alliance, while Major Summit (8-1) and Nahthen Lad (10-1) are also strongly fancied for the staying novice championship.

"We'll damn near know exactly what chance we have at Cheltenham afterwards," Chance said, "and so will everyone else. We're pitching our fellow in at the deep end with a 7lb penalty when some of them have no penalty at all. But the race fits in nicely and I'd rather race for 25 grand than gallop at home for nothing.''

After Sunday's Hennessy Gold Cup victory for Fergus Sutherland, an English trainer who moved to Ireland, success for Mr Mulligan would even things up. Chance, who trained on the Curragh for many years, moved his operation to Lambourn on 1 May last year, and has no regrets.

"It was a great opportunity to train horses of this calibre," he said. "Things are difficult in Ireland. There's not that much racing and the country is full of trainers, and also of permit-holders, DIY fellas, and you couldn't get a horse, never mind win a race.''

At the weights, Mr Mulligan has a very stern task today, but it is hard to find a convincing alternative. He may run well enough in defeat to consolidate his position in the Sun Alliance market, and a slice of the 7-1 available with Ladbrokes for Cheltenham may be the best option.

Sound Man (3.05) too should cement his status as Champion Chase favourite, a position he has held since his superb success over today's course and distance in November. Nigel Twiston-Davies's progressive Buckhouse Boy (next best 2.30) is 9lb out of the handicap, but may be improving fast enough to win again, while Mole Board (1.30), who was running in Champion Hurdles before Buckhouse Boy was foaled, could still have enough talent to secure one more victory.

In the two-mile novice chase, several of the runners are deficient either in talent or temperament. SUPER COIN (nap 2.00) can take advantage.

n From 21 March, trainers will have to report "anything which might have adversely affected the performance of any horse they train in a race". This scheme was introduced on a voluntary basis in October 1994.