So easy for So Young in Facebook Hurdle

So Young underlined his Cheltenham Festival potential when running out a comfortable winner of the two-mile Follow Navan on Facebook Hurdle at Navan on Sunday.
Third to First Lieutenant in the Neptune Investment Novices’ Hurdle at Prestbury Park last March, So Young was on a hat-trick mission at the stiff County Meath track having landed his first two starts this season and he didn’t let his fans down when justifying 1/3 favouritism under Ruby Walsh.
Sent into an early lead, the classy six-year-old quickened up impressively when briefly challenged by Trifolium at the second-last, with seven-and-a-half lengths separating the pair at the line.
Willie Mullins, who trains the winner for Dublin bookmaker, Luke McMahon, was very pleased with his charge’s showing.
He said, “Ruby wasn’t afraid to make it on him and he did it well from the front. He seemed to enjoy that and jumped very well all through. Obviously, his best trip is over further but he showed good speed over the minimum trip today.”
Outlining future plans for So Young, Mullins continued, “He may come back here next month for the Boyne Hurdle and he’ll get an entry in both the Champion Hurdle and the World Hurdle at Cheltenham. A fast-run two miler would suit him but I have no doubt his future is over longer distances.”
Mullins and Walsh had earlier initiated a double when taking the opening two-mile maiden hurdle with French import, Terminal.
The winner of three bumpers in France before joining Mullins’ base at Closutton on the Carlow/Kilkenny border, Terminal was the subject of good reports and bookmakers were taking no chances when opening the five-year-old at 4-7 favourite.
In the end, that price looked value as Terminal put his 19 rivals to the sword when staying on impressively on the uphill climb to the post to beat runner-up Hidden Future by two-and-three-quarter lengths.
The winner, who races in the colours of the Favourites Racing Syndicate, could be anything and the manner in which he jumped and stayed on over a first-rate track like Navan was certainly encouraging.
Mullins reported, “He’s a nice horse to have in the yard. I was very pleased with the way he travelled and jumped and how much he found from the final flight. We’ll find a novice hurdle for him now and we’ll see how he handles the step-up in grade.”
Terminal was introduced at 20-1 for Cheltenham’s Supreme Novices Hurdle, while 16-1 is best available for the four furlongs further Neptune Novices’ event.
Dublin-born Meath-based trainer Peter Casey has his team in tip-top shape at the moment and his Jack The Bus picked up a nice pot when landing the featured €27,000 Foxrock Handicap Chase under in-form jockey Andrew Lynch.
A good money spinner, Jack The Bus hardened from 5-1 to 7-2 in this two-and-a-half-mile test and he found plenty when popped the question on the approach to the final fence when forging clear to beat runner-up Four Chimneys by three lengths.
Casey, who is still smarting having been fined €1,900 for the late withdrawal of Jack The Bus from the Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown over Christmas (where Casey felt the drying ground was unsuitable), nominated next week’s Thyestes Chase at Gowran as Jack The Bus’s next outing.

Classy display from Vic Venturi

The open lightweight at last Sunday’s Scarteen Foxhounds point-to-point at Kilfeacle, County Tipperary, was an informative affair with the Dessie Hughes-trained winner, Vic Venturi, nominated as a probable candidate for this year’s Cheltenham’s Christie’s Foxhunter Chase following an impressive success.
A high-class sort inside the rails, Vic Venturi, whose final appearance on the track saw him chase home Follow The Plan in the Grade 1 Guinness Gold Cup at Punchestown last May, was sent off the 5-4 favourite to get back to winning ways.
Robbie McNamara set out to make all the running aboard the Seamus Dunne-owned son of Old Vic and the pair did just that when staying on powerfully on the climb to the post to beat Liz Doyle’s 2009 Pierse Hurdle winner, Penny’s Bill, by a length.
The winner will probably have another outing in an open somewhere on Sunday week before heading for the Raymond Smith Memorial Hunter’s Chase at Leopardstown on Hennessy Gold Cup day (February 12). Vic Venturi could yet prove a lively contender for the Cheltenham contest on March 16.
Not for the first time, champion jockey Derek O’Connor faced something of a dilemma last Sunday as his services were required at several venues. The Tubber pilot could have headed to Tinahely in County Wicklow, where Gordon Elliott held a strong hand that included Backstage in the open lightweight (he formed part of an Elliott hat-trick at the Wicklow track) but in the end O’Connor opted to go to Kilfeacle, where he bagged a double.
His first success came in the five-year-old geldings’ maiden where he steered Pat Doyle’s well-backed Westaway (1-1-4-6f) to victory.
Unlucky when coming a cropper at Dromahane on his previous outing, Westaway encountered no such problems on this occasion as he ran on best in the closing stages to beat Colin Bowe’s newcomer, Cottiers Den, by a length and a half.
Doyle, who trains at Holycross, nominated a two-and-a-half-mile bumper as the winner’s likely target.
O’Connor completed his double when teaming up with Kinsale trainer, Robert Tyner to take the winners’ race aboard 7-2 shot, Embracing Change.
Settled in mid-division in the early stages, the winner began to improve on the approach to two out with O’Connor timing his run to perfection when bringing the successful son of Anshan through to beat long-time leader, Carry Each Other by three lengths. Mary Tyner, wife of winning handler Robert, felt the stiff track was a huge help to the winner, who is likely to turn out in the hunter’s chase at Clonmel early next month.
Meanwhile, award-winning O’Connor displayed his versatility as he rode his first ever winner on Dundalk’s polytrack surface when taking the concluding Dundalk Winter Racing (QR) handicap aboard Tribes And Banner at the Louth track last Friday night.
Trained in Tipperary by former champion jockey Charlie Swan, Tribes And Banner, who races in the colours of the Bernard Gillane-headed Kill Be Canty Syndicate from the Kilbeacanty area of south Galway, was backed from 7-2 into 5-2 and he benefitted from a typically polished ride from O’Connor, who coolly brought the eight-year-old from last to first to beat Ted Walsh Paramount (Katie Walsh) by three parts of a length.