Special Cheltenham Festival for Cork as Kopek Des Bordes rises to the occasion

Charlie McCarthy’s Kopek Des Bordes emerged as one of the real stars of the recent Cheltenham Festival with an emphatic victory in the opening Michael O’Sullivan Supreme Novice Hurdle.

Paul Townend was in a perfect position throughout and this French-bred looks a real star of the future. Whether that will be over fences or hurdles remains to be seen, but his flamboyant owner from Fermoy is taking it all in his stride.

“It was a dream come true to have a Cheltenham winner and everything went according to plan,” McCarthy said.

“Whether we go to Punchestown or not will be up to Willie Mullins. All I know is Kopek Des Bordes got back home no problem and came out of the race perfect.

He’s a very exciting horse and we are so lucky to have him.”

Jody Townend has consistently been riding winners here at home and got a much-deserved Cheltenham Festival winner aboard Bambino Fever in the Champion Bumper. This mare was very good at the Dublin Racing Festival and backed it up last week with an assured victory.

Subject to plenty of support throughout Wednesday, Bambino Fever was sent off at 4-1 and was always ideally poised under her jockey, showing plenty of speed in the closing stages to hold off a host of rivals who chased her to no avail up the famous Cheltenham hill.

“I’m beyond cloud nine, I can’t believe it and it will take some time to sink in.

“I was in front plenty soon enough on her and I was looking up at the big screen thinking ‘please don’t come up the inner’ so it was a big relief when I got to the line,” Townend said.

”I’ve been dreaming of this since I was a child and have grown up watching Paul ride winners around here, but it’s my turn to be happy now.”

MIXED

It was a real mixed bag for Paul Townend, who ended up with four winners and was crowned champion jockey for the week.

Kopek Des Bordes, Lossiemouth, Kargese, and Jasmin De Vaux were all in the winners enclosure but the fall of State Man in the Champion Hurdle was a real sickener, while Galopin Des Champs just never quite travelled in the Gold Cup.

Ground conditions just conspired against him on the day and the dual Gold Cup winner needs a much softer surface. Galopin Des Champs still ran well to finish runner-up to the new champion Inothewayurthinkin from the Gavin Cromwell stable.

Willie Mullins was crowned leading trainer at the Cheltenham Festival for an incredible 12th time on Friday, his seventh in succession which is some achievement.

Home By The Lee will be readied for the Liverpool Hurdle at Aintree following his luckless run at the Cheltenham Festival last week.

Having appeared better than ever in winning the Lismullen Hurdle at Navan and the Savills Hurdle at Leopardstown, hopes were high for West Cork owner Sean O’Driscoll’s 10-year-old ahead of what was his fifth appearance in the Stayers’ Hurdle at Prestbury Park.

However, his race ended prematurely after he was badly hampered by the fall of Crambo at the fifth flight, which led to him unseating his rider JJ Slevin.

Trainer Joseph O’Brien was left wondering what might have been given the eventual winner Bob Olinger had finished behind Home By The Lee in his two previous races this season and the Owning Hill handler is now eyeing swift compensation on Merseyside.

“Obviously, it was a pity the way things worked out as the horse he’d been beating all year came out and won the race, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes and he seems fine, so you’ll probably see him in Aintree,” O’Brien said.

REMEMBERED

Finally, it goes without saying that the memory of Lombardstown jockey Michael O’Sullivan was one of the main talking points throughout the week at Cheltenham.

To see the two horses he rode to win at the festival in 2023 win consecutive races last week was quite extraordinary. Marine Nationale was a convincing winner of the Champion Chase while Jazzy Matty took the Grand Annual.

It certainly was written in the stars.