Impressive Don Cossack is an easy winner of the Punchestown Gold Cup

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/apr/29/impressive-don-cossack-punchestown-gold-cup

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Every day at this Festival meeting seems to belong to Willie Mullins and he saddled two more Grade One winners on Wednesday to add to his three the day before. He came up short in the main event, however, as Don Cossack stayed on strongly to beat Djakadam in the Punchestown Gold Cup, and while Mullins remains unassailable in his dominance of Irish jump racing, Don Cossack’s trainer, Gordon Elliott, is the one rival who may be starting to close the gap.

Elliott’s best steeplechaser is certainly finishing the campaign with a flourish, as his latest victory came only 19 days after his 26-length success in the Melling Chase at Aintree. Wednesday’s win was also one that opened up new possibilities, as it proved his stamina for a strongly run chase at three miles and could be seen as the first significant trial for next year’s Gold Cup at Cheltenham.

Djakadam, Mullins’s main contender for Punchestown’s Gold Cup, finished second behind Coneygree in Cheltenham’s feature race last month, and was sent off as the 2-1 favourite here. He travelled as well as anything bar the winner as he shared pacemaking duty with Road To Riches, the winner of Leopardstown’s Hennessy Gold Cup in February, but when Paul Carberry delivered Don Cossack’s challenge on the run to the final fence, Djakadam succumbed in a couple of strides.

“We wanted to find out if he stayed the trip or not at this stage of the season so we would know where we are going next year,” Elliott said. “He’s always been the apple of my eye and this is one of the proudest days I’ve had training horses so far.

“I feel sorry for Bryan [Cooper, who chose to ride Road To Riches in the same colours of the owner Michael O’Leary], but he had to go with the other horse after being third in the Gold Cup. But I’m delighted for Paul; he’s been associated with me for a long time and to give him a Grade One is brilliant.

“We were nervous about running him but it’s the Gold Cup so we took our chance and now I’ll be safe in the job for another year, please God. I’m just so happy with the way he did it; he put seven lengths between them on the way to the line.”

Don Cossack will need to stay another two furlongs uphill to win a Cheltenham Gold Cup, but Carberry was adamant afterwards that his mount has every chance of doing that, and the winner ran on strongly all the way to the post here. He is now top-priced at 8-1 for the Gold Cup in a market headed by Mullins’s Vautour at 4-1.

“Bryan told me before the race that he was the best horse in it if he ran up to his rating,” Elliott said. “I thought that was even better than Aintree because they were flat to the boards all the way and he proved he stays. I’ll worry about that [the extra distance at Cheltenham] next March, but there’s a lot of racing to be done before then.”

Earlier on the card, Mullins extended his monopoly on the meeting’s Grade One events when Killultagh Vic, the winner of the Martin Pipe Handicap Hurdle at Cheltenham, stayed on to deny Colin Tizzard’s fast-finishing Thistlecrack, who was badly hampered twice, by half a length in the Irish Daily Mirror Novice Hurdle.

It was Mullins’s fourth Grade One success in four top-level events at the 2015 Festival, and also the third in which a second-string from the champion trainer’s yard beat a better-fancied stablemate.

Shaneshill, the runner-up in the Supreme Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham, was the 11-8 favourite to win on his first attempt at three miles, but he did not get home after travelling well until the final quarter mile.

Killultagh Vic is a 12-1 chance with Paddy Power for next season’s World Hurdle at Cheltenham, while Thistlecrack is 16-1 with the same firm.

“He looks like a chaser but I’ll have to chat to the owners as they may consider keeping him over hurdles for the World Hurdle,” Mullins said. “I don’t know if Shaneshill didn’t stay or is just feeling the effects of a couple of runs. We’ll have to see if anything comes to light to explain why he appeared to stop, hopefully we can get to the bottom of why that happened.”

Mullins also took the Grade One Champion National Hunt Flat race with Bellshill, ridden by his son Patrick. Bellshill was in front two furlongs out before staying on well to beat Disko, and is quoted at 12-1 with Paddy Power for next year’s Neptune Novice Hurdle.

At Ascot, Henry Candy’s Limato extended his unbeaten record to five races with an impressive three-year-old debut in the Group Three Pavilion Stakes.

Limato concluded his juvenile season with an easy victory in the Two-Year-Old Trophy at Redcar and resumed in similar style, beating Tendu by one-and-a-half lengths despite being caught wide with little cover from his draw in stall one.

Limato was rated just 4lb below Belardo, 2014’s champion juvenile, at the end of last year, but set off as an uneasy 6-4 favourite for Wednesday’s race after Candy expressed concern beforehand that the colt had been “lazy” in his exercise.

“He was very rusty and he’s had a real good blow after that,” Candy said. “I’ve not been able to get him fit at home as he’s not been doing much. James [Doyle] was quite forceful early on and the penny then seemed to drop.”

Limato’s main target in the first half of the season is the first running of the Group One Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot in June, a six-furlong sprint for three-year-olds.

“That would have sorted him out both mentally and physically, but I was dreading today, as he’d not been showing anything like last year,” Candy said. “I think he’s probably as exciting as before and I’m just relieved. We’ll keep an open mind about having another run before coming back here for the Commonwealth Cup.”

Luca Cumani’s Mizzou set a new track record for two miles on the way to a two-length success in the Group Three Sagaro Stakes and is now top-priced at 14-1 for the Gold Cup, the Royal meeting’s feature event.

“He’s a lovely horse and Luca has always had a lot of faith in him,” Sara Cumani, the trainer’s wife, said. “He’s been telling everyone over the winter that this is his Ascot Gold Cup horse. He’s a really kind, genuine, honest horse. He will go to Sandown now for the Henry II Stakes [on 28 May] and then to the Gold Cup.”