Emphatic Facile Vega seals Willie Mullins treble in rain-threatened bumper

Wednesday: Weatherbys Champion Bumper, Cheltenham

Willie Mullins trained his 12th winner of the Weatherbys Champion Bumper when Facile Vega triumphed in the gloom at Cheltenham – and few have impressed the trainer more.

“He looks the real deal as we always thought,” Mullins said after the five-year-old son of Cheltenham Festival legend Quevega powered to victory under jockey Patrick Mullins. “These conditions weren’t conducive for him to produce his best, but he still did the business.”

The conditions dominated the build-up to the race, which was delayed by 12 minutes after the relentless rain had left areas of standing water and false ground. After the course was inspected, three patches were dolled off and the runners took off into the gathering gloom.

Facile Vega oozed class throughout. Having travelled strongly into the contest in the red and blue silks of the Hammer & Trowel Syndicate, who had also owned his dam, six-time Cheltenham Festival winner Quevega, Facile Vega picked up in style in the straight.

American Mike, the well-regarded second favourite, tried to go with the 15-8 market leader but had no answers as Facile Vega powered up the hill to send a bedraggled crowd home in raptures.

American Mike was the only non-Mullins horse involved in the finish, with James’s Gate and Seabank Bistro third and fourth for the bumper's dominant training force.

Willie Mullins on Facile Vega: 'I worried about conditions here today but he's relished it'Credit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

“I’ve compared him to Florida Pearl, who was a very good bumper horse, and that’s how highly we regard him,” Mullins added. “He’d be in the top percentage of our winners of this race.

“He’s very easy to train and we just keep a lid on him all the time. He could stay at this trip or go over further, but we’ll think about that once he's won a maiden hurdle. I don’t know how good he is – he covers an awful lot of ground when he’s galloping and he has plenty of speed.”

American Mike’s trainer Gordon Elliott was magnanimous in defeat, and said: “It was a great race and I think we’ve seen a very good horse there [Facile Vega] but our horse is very good too. We lost nothing in defeat and they’ll be two great horses for the future.”

Champion Bumper: full result and race replay

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