Mullins praises the brains behind DRF initiative after two-day Closutton blitz

It might have taken him an hour or so to get motoring on day two but Willie Mullins blitzed five of the last six races to take his Dublin Racing Festival haul to a whopping nine wins.

The perennial champion trainer delivered with short-priced duo Appreciate It and Monkfish, but the other three Sunday winners, including Kemboy, all came from the supporting cast as opposed to the leading lights.

Maze Runner, sporting the colours of Mullins's wife Jackie, was one of six darts he threw at the William Fry Handicap Hurdle. Successful in just one of his five previous starts over hurdles, he overcame a middling round of jumping to win with authority under Conor McNamara, whose claim will now be reduced to 3lb as a result.

"Today I just said to Conor to get him switched off, which he did, and he gave him a super ride," Mullins said afterwards.

“He rode him for luck and got a great run up the inside most of the way and it paid off. He stayed that trip well."

Mullins was similarly mob-handed with five in the Grade 2 bumper for mares, and this time it was the Jody Townend-ridden Grangee who prevailed, edging out Party Central by a neck after racing keen and wide early on.

The Syndicates.Racing-owned winner, third behind Eileendover at Market Rasen when the first post-Brexit Irish runner in England, returned an SP of 18-1 and could now cross the Irish Sea again for a stab at the Champion Bumper. It brought the cumulative odds of his five winners to an eye-watering 5,841-1.

Reflecting on the two days, Mullins paid tribute to those who brought about the whole DRF concept for the first time in 2018.

"It’s a tremendous Leopardstown and HRI initiative to put on a weekend like this," he said. "The whole industry is grateful for that initiative, and to get the calibre of horse that has been here over the two days. I’m not sure there has been that calibre of horse at a two-day race meeting ever in the British Isles. It’s a fantastic tribute to them."

Heaven helps Hennessy

Paul Hennessy is more synonymous with plundering some of greyhound racing's most prestigious events, but he also does well with his equine string and enjoyed the biggest win of his career in that realm when stable star Heaven Help Us just prevailed in the €100,000 mares' handicap hurdle.

Having won a maiden hurdle at the Cheltenham October meeting in 2019, Heaven Help Us finished second to Abacadabras at the same year's Christmas Festival, but has generally struggled to make an impact in some rarefied company over both hurdles and fences.

Sporting first-time cheekpieces, the seven-year-old was also reverting to hurdles for the first time since finishing down the field in the Supreme Novices' Hurdle last March. With no Shishkin to contend with and Richie Condon taking 7lb off, this neck win from the late-arriving Global Equity proved an altogether more manageable task.

"It’s a great thrill to win Paddy’s race," Hennessy admitted of the 16-1 winner. "We were neighbours and when I was a young lad he would often bring me to the races and make sure I got home as well.”

Of Heaven Help Us, he added: “She was second here in a Grade 1. I wasn’t sure she was as mad about the fences – she’ll do it for you but she wasn't really in love with it so we said we’d switch her back to hurdles.

“She might go for a Pertemps Qualifier at Punchestown to try and get her into Cheltenham. I’d love to have a runner at the festival."

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