Willie Mullins already has a strong team of novice hurdlers for next month’s Cheltenham Festival, but the master of Closutton could have another classy candidate heading to Prestbury Park in March as Largy Hill was an impressive winner of the Grade 3 BoyleSports Michael Purcell Memorial Novice Hurdle at Thurles on Thursday afternoon and was subsequently slashed in the betting for the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle.
As short as 12/1 for the Albert Bartlett, which is run on Friday 15th March, Largy Hill was a clear four-length winner over the red-hot odds-on favourite Staffordshire Knot, who could only finish second and that Gordon Elliott-trained raider was eased to 25/1 for the Baring Bingham Novices’ Hurdle after being soundly beaten.
Beaten by the classy Stellar Story on his hurdling debut, Largy Hill has since impressed on his last two starts over timber and having won at Cork in January he kicked on again to claim victory in today’s Graded event at Thurles. He looks to be going the right way and could well be a potential candidate for the Albert Bartlett on Cheltenham Gold Cup day.
The Mullins team already have a strong team sitting pretty at the top of the ante-post betting for the 3m Grade 1 novice hurdle with the triumvirate of High Class Hero, Dancing City and Readin Tommy Wrong all battling it out for favouritism, but Largy Hill’s win this afternoon has added another inmate from the Co. Carlow yard into the mix and he could be a player, should he make a quick turnaround and head to Gloucestershire next month.