IT MAY be over 18 months since he has raced but Mikael D’Haguenet is set to be thrown in at the deep end on his return to action at Fairyhouse this Sunday.Trainer Willie Mullins has indicated the Grade One Bar One Racing Drinmore Chase is the target for Mikael D’Haguenet despite the former brilliant novice hurdler never having run over fences in Ireland before.
The 2009 Cheltenham and Punchestown Festival winner also holds an entry in a Beginners Chase at Naas tomorrow which would be a much easier option but Mullins is prepared to pitch the ex-French star straight into the highest class.
“I’d say it is more than likely we will run at the weekend. He did a lot of schooling last season before we pulled the plug and he has done a good bit this season too. He also ran in a chase in France (May 2008) so it’s not like he is a normal first season novice,” he said yesterday.
“It’s not something I would normally do, running a horse first time in a Grade One, but I’m happy, with all the schooling he has done, to do it with this horse. Provided he works well during the week we’ll go for the Drinmore,” Mullins added.
Sunday’s triple Grade One card could turn out to be hugely significant for the Mullins team as Ireland’s top Champion Hurdle hope Hurricane Fly is also set to have his first start of the season in the €85,000 Hatton’s Grace Hurdle.
Like Mikael D’Haguenet, Hurricane Fly impressed in a post-race work out at Punchestown earlier this month and Mullins is not concerned about stepping the horse up to two and a half miles for this weekend’s feature. “He won a hurdle over two miles and three and a half furlongs on very soft ground at Auteuil as a four year old, and was also second in a Grade One at Auteuil, so I’m not worried about the trip,” he said.
Mullins ruled Blackstairmountain out of the Hatton’s Grace but another stable companion Mourad could join Hurricane Fly, a general 5 to 1 second favourite behind Binocular for Cheltenham, in Sunday’s race.
The third Grade One of the winter festival card will be the Royal Bond in which Mullins has yet to decide if the highly-touted Zaidpour will appear. The Grade One Navan Hurdle next month or an ordinary novice race elsewhere are other options.
One star that looks increasingly likely to miss out on any action this winter is the Ascot Gold Cup hero Rite Of Passage who had been nominated as a possible challenger for Cheltenham’s Champion Hurdle.
However, his trainer Dermot Weld yesterday indicated that Rite Of Passage won’t go jumping this season and will be targeted instead at another crack at the Ascot Gold Cup. “We have to decide whether to go hurdling this winter but it would appear less likely and obviously we would like a crack at another Gold Cup at Royal Ascot,” Weld said.
“He is here at Rosewell House and is in great form. But he was a bit stiff and sore after he won the Gold Cup so we gave him time out. We were going to go for the Melbourne Cup but decided to give him more time,” Weld said.
Another Group One-winning flat star from Rosewell, Casual Conquest, is also likely to miss out on a jumping campaign and Weld reported: “I don’t think we will be going hurdling this winter, I’m afraid.”
Weld also announced yesterday that his Irish St Leger runner-up Profound Beauty has been retired to stud following a disappointing effort in the Melbourne Cup. “If she breeds horses with her courage, and her will to win, there’s going to be some very good horses from her,” the trainer added.
