Wicklow Brave spearheads Townend double as Mullins bags Galway treble

After Willie Mullins produced Dandy Mag to defy a 781-day layoff en route to a decisive beginners’ chase victory, the perennial champion explained his decision not to let Paul Townend take the mount was born of an ambition to keep his first-choice rider sound for the big races.

David Mullins reaped the benefit of that policy aboard Dandy Mag, and Townend then got his dividend when the irrepressible Wicklow Brave devoured the final punishing Ballybrit incline to dance home in the Grade 3 novice chase and initiate a brace that was completed aboard Foveros in the novice hurdle. A Closutton treble secured and two riders happy with their lot.

This was a second win over fences from as many starts for Wicklow Brave, the ten-year-old stalwart’s 16th triumph taking him beyond the €1 million mark in terms of prize-money earned, six years after he broke his duck at the course in a bumper. He has been some performer.