Ferny Hollow flies to head of Arkle market as Mullins defends cautious approach

Sunday: Punchestown

Ferny Hollow didn’t just enter the Arkle picture, he blew the doors open and made himself good and comfortable at the head of the betting, with 4-1 the best bookmakers could offer about Cheltenham for the Cheveley Park-owned recruit to chasing.

When a horse races just once in an injury curtailed season as a novice hurdler like Ferny Hollow did, one can expect a certain amount of ring-rustiness, but he had to dig deep when headed by Coeur Sublime between the final two fences.

Panic was soon averted as Ferny Hollow showed the gears of a horse who won a Champion Bumper and beat Bob Olinger over hurdles to win comfortably by four lengths to provide Willie and Patrick Mullins with a dream result just half an hour after winning the John Durkan with Allaho.

“For a horse having only the sixth race of his career, I was very impressed with him,” said the winning trainer. “He got a bit of a bump between the last two and to get into a shemozzle like that and still come out of it fighting, I thought he was very good.

“He was very lazy over the first few fences, very careful, but Patrick said that once he had to get down and race over the last four, he was much better. He was like a professional.”

Patrick Mullins: believes the top three in the Supreme market had an unfair advantage at CheltenhamCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

Mullins added: “We'll look for a nice novice chase now. We'll see how he comes out of this race before we make a plan, but the Racing Post Novice Chase [December 26] at Leopardstown would certainly be on his agenda if it doesn't come too soon.”

This was the weekend where Mullins began to throw caution to the wind, and he couldn’t have been much happier with how his horses performed.

Ferny Hollow is right up there in terms of the most exciting horses in the stable and the trainer, who revealed that he wondered to himself if he had become overcautious about running the best of his winter horses, backed his decision to be slow in priming the powder for the season.

“I was reading in the paper the other day that it was the driest November, certainly around the east coast, since 1942,” Mullins said. “That is some statistic. I was wondering if we were getting too precious with our horses, but the figures bear out and you can feel it in the ground every day you go out.”

Sandor Clegane provides Nolan with much needed lift

The week just gone for Paul Nolan was one that you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. Losing Latest Exhibition in the Hatton's Grace Hurdle ripped the heart out of everyone at Toberona Stables, but it is hard to keep a team like Nolan's down for too long.

As if it were a message from above, up popped Sandor Clegane to romp home by 15 lengths in the concluding bumper to give Nolan something to smile about.

Nolan said: "A lot of the same owners who were involved in Latest Exhibition own this fella. There's no point in getting carried away but, thanks be to God that, after the week we've had, he has come along. We were delighted with him – he was very professional.

"Thanks to James Doyle for recommending him and hopefully he will kick on. He schools well, but we will probably go for a winners' bumper. He's a fine, big horse and please God he'll stay trouble-free."

Touching on the week just gone, Nolan added: "It was a horrible week, but these are tremendously lucky colours and he is owned by some brilliant people. I'm just delighted for them after what happened last week."

Results, replays and analysis

Read more from Sunday's racing:

Easy return for Energumene as Champion Chase contender strolls home in Hilly Way

Gutsy Allaho 'not at his best' but makes all to land gruelling John Durkan

Expert jury: What did we learn from an attritional John Durkan Chase?

'We've no excuse' - 1-14 shot Kilcruit beaten on hurdles bow by Largy Debut

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