The curse of the Champion Chase favourite prevailed once more as jumping fragilities came back to haunt Majborough, with stablemate Il Etait Temps picking up the pieces. Last year’s Arkle third was seemingly lifted by cheekpieces at Leopardstown, but was let down by his jumping once more. After jumping off sluggishly, Majborough was rushed up to the front by Mark Walsh and jumped boldly to begin with. Walsh took up the running at the fourth from Quilixios, and looked to be in a positive rhythm.
The writing was calligraphed on the wall after pecking at the eighth, before ploughing through the third last. L’Eau du Sud looked dangerous turning into the straight, but once again found little off the bridle. Il Etait Temps swooped on by and despite a mistake at the last, he won a shade cosily.
“He’s small but mighty” – Craig Kieswetter
Speaking after the race, via the Racing Post, owner Craig Kieswetter was full of praise for his gutsy winner: “It’s been a long time coming,” remarked former Twenty20 Cricket World Cup winner Kieswetter. “He’s small but mighty, and he’s given us a lot of surprises and a lot of joy. We’re delighted.
“A lot of stuff went in our favour today. Conditions were perfect, there were a few errors from other horses in the race, and we took advantage. We nearly didn’t at the last, mind you, but we pulled it off.”
Willie Mullins was in pole position to land the contest, but perhaps unexpectedly not with the eventual winner. Regarding Majborough, Mullins noted he “was jumping so well in front. Down the back he jumped the first one great, the second one all right. The third one he just took off before Mark and I thought, ‘This is not going good’.
“It just got steadily worse from there until the third-last and that was him gone. But out of the corner of my eye I could see Paul just thinking to himself: ’Aha – now we have a horse race’.
“He started getting really confident. He just planned his move around the last bend and just had to get the last two fences right. I got a heart attack at the last, but I knew he looked like he had plenty of running in him. We’re very happy.”
Il Etait Temps was a deserved winner of the contest under an excellent ride from Paul Townend, as Willie Mullins notched up his fifth winner of the festival thus far.