Lecky Watson was a surprise 20/1 winner of the Grade 1 Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham this afternoon.
In a seven-runner field, with all horses trained in Ireland, Willie Mullins was represented by four, including the eventual winner.
Explaining pre-race instruction to jockey Seán O’Keeffe, Mullins explained:
“All season he has improved. We just said to Seán (O’Keeffe) maybe go a little bit wider and keep out of trouble. Seán kept it very simple and it was an excellent ride.”
When race favourite Ballyburn (4/7) made an error early in the race, the former leading novice hurdler was never in serious contention from then on.
Commenting on the defeat of the off-on favourite, the Closutton handler stated:
“Ballyburn was gone early and he wasn’t travelling in my mind and then he made that bad mistake.
“The game was over early for him, but we might now go back in trip with him and maybe make more use of him. I don’t think he enjoyed being put in the box seat there and they weren’t going fast enough for him.”
Though the Gigginstown Stud-owned Stellar Story (22/1) and Danny Gilligan eventually gave Lecky Watson most to do, the latter still had four lengths in hand at the line.
Better Days Ahead (13/2), trained like the runner-up by Gordon Elliott, was a head further back in third place under Jack Kennedy.
