Feeling the pressure? Clamour grows for Champion bid after Apple's Jade romp

It took decades for Michael O’Leary to acquiesce to the cacophony of external noise demanding that Ryanair recognise trade unions and we’ll soon find out if his horseracing enterprise is any more malleable.

At the time, in his role as Ryanair chief executive, O’Leary insisted that it was out of necessity rather than generosity that the airline was embracing the collective bargaining associations.

If it’s true that he is as immovable as ever, then Apple’s Jade’s ruthless filleting of her BHP Irish Champion Hurdle opposition under Jack Kennedy might count for little.

The clamour to see this exceptionally-talented mare compete against worthy opposition come Cheltenham in March began the moment she cruised by the line 16 lengths clear of Supasundae, last year’s winner of the two-mile Leopardstown Grade 1.

Apple's Jade and Jack Kennedy on their way to victory in the Irish Champion HurdleCredit: Patrick McCann

A further five lengths back in third was 2017 victor Petit Mouchoir, while behind him in fourth was Melon, the horse who got closer to Buveur D’Air than anything else has done in the past two Unibet Champion Hurdles when denied by a mere neck last March.

Paddy Power duly cut the Gigginstown Stud star's odds for this year’s Tuesday showpiece to 7-4 from 5-1, just behind Buveur D’Air at 13-8.

Soon afterwards, Nicky Henderson’s hat-trick seeking champion looked back on fine terms with himself at Sandown, but, even before witnessing that, O’Leary’s brother Eddie and Apple’s Jade’s trainer Gordon Elliott were resisting the seemingly unanimous public plea for her to be diverted to the definitive two-mile championship event.

Some might still argue that the Stayers' Hurdle would be a preferred option, but few are petitioning for her to tackle the less prestigious OLBG Mares’ Hurdle. Few, that is, except the people that matter most.

Buveur D'Air: successful at SandownCredit: Mark Cranham

Apple's Jade overcame her tendency to jump right to become the first mare since Like-A-Butterfly in 2003 to claim the Irish Champion Hurdle, and Elliott, who previously suggested she would be lapped in a Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham, did at least stop short of ruling it out.

“She’s in all of them, so we’ll discuss it,” he said of the exceptional seven-year-old. “We won’t rule anything out – everything is a possibility now.”

For those of us eager to see the best horses in training taking each other on at the Cheltenham Festival, Eddie O’Leary sounded an even more adamant note.

"We'll go to the Champion Hurdle if you will allow us to run a gelding in the mares' race,” he quipped. “Did she win the Mares' Hurdle last year? No.

“There’s always a possibility she could run in the Champion, but it’s only a possibility. Her ideal trip is two and a half miles, and Cheltenham is the wrong way round for her. You’d be taking on a serious horse in Buveur D’Air, and she would be giving him a length at every hurdle – that makes up for the 7lb she’d be getting.

“The plan has always been the mares’ race and I don’t see why we’d change it.”

O’Leary might be talking down her Champion Hurdle prospects, but he was also keen to acknowledge this latest stunning feat.

After watching Apple’s Jade secure a tenth Grade 1, and achieve something not even the mighty Kauto Star managed by winning a Grade 1 over two, two and a half and three miles in the same season, he said: “She's a fantastic mare, and she’s getting better with age. That was awesome.”

Rider Jack Kennedy, like Elliott winning the race for a first time, could barely contain his adoration for a horse that bossed the field from the front as they plundered a fifth top-level success together.

“Oh wow,” he gushed. “It doesn't matter what trip, she's just unreal. She’s the best hurdler I’ve sat on and she makes good horses look ordinary.”

Unsurprisingly, Elliott inferred that Michael O'Leary will make the final call as to which race Apple's Jade will tackle at Cheltenham.

As of now, O'Leary's updated view was the only one not on the record, and his campaigning of Apple’s Jade has in general been sporting and ambitious.

Remember, though, he once stated that Apple's Jade would get a nose bleed in a Champion Hurdle. If her performance in the Irish version is anything to go by, she is at least entitled to a chance to defy that theory.

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