It was hardly obvious the 43-year-old was anything but as fit as he was when winning on Liberty Dance at Thurles last month, after which he caught many unawares with his retirement decision.
“It was a tall order giving weight to those boys. It was probably a tiny worry running her on heavy ground too. But she’s answered a lot of questions,” said her trainer Colm Murphy. Willie Mullins swapped Punchestown for some Caribbean holiday sunshine but managed to add to his reservoir of novice talent with the opening two winners.
Asked how good he thinks the horse is, Townend replied: “I don’t know because we can’t get him to do it at home to be honest, but he keeps doing it on the track. I think he’s very smart and he gave me a great feel.” The winner’s trainer Liz Doyle said: “Hopefully he can be competitive again, but that’s job done for the year. His jumping is very good and for a big horse he is very clever.Henry de Bromhead indicated both his Gold Cup winners A Plus Tard and Minella Indo will go straight back to the festival ‘Blue Riband’ in March.