Fact To File (6/4f) lived up to the hype with an emphatic success in the Grade 1 Ryanair Chase on day three of the Cheltenham Festival.
The Willie Mullins-trained gelding, who had finished behind dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs in his last two races, produced a magnificent performance in winning by nine lengths from Heart Wood (18/1) and Darragh O’Keeffe.
“The manner of the way in which he won was a bit of a surprise, but I felt coming here he’d win it,” Willie Mullins admitted post-race.
Last season’s Brown Advisory winner was an 81st Cheltenham Festival success for J.P. McManus, and a 12th for the winning rider, Mark Walsh.
“I do agree that he might have been the horse to give Galopin Des Champs a battle tomorrow in the Gold Cup and he was in it, but felt it was better to bide our options,” Mullins explained.
The Closutton master continued:
“He’ll probably be a Gold Cup horse next year. He’ll be a year older and we felt that at this stage a hard race in the Gold Cup, if the ground turned up soft… It’s not like that, but that was the way I was thinking all season. JP [McManus] didn’t want him to have a very hard race in the Gold Cup this year – sometimes that can ruin a horse’s career. So next year – I’m not going to say any more about two-year plans after Lossiemouth, but another year might be right. I think that’s what we’re looking at.”
Fact To File finished the 2 miles five furlongs race out so well, Mark Walsh informed:
“I was struggling to pull him up! Even coming up by the junction of the track here, he heard all the crowd on my left shouting, and he started pricking his ears and ducking away from them, so there’s loads left.”
