Real Steel shows his mettle with Thurles rout as hot favourite Footpad flops

Real Steel continued his rise through the chasing ranks with an impressive victory in the Grade 2 Horse & Jockey Hotel Chase at Thurles on Sunday, brushing aside off-form stablemate Footpad to earn quotes of between 8-1 and 14-1 for the Ryanair Chase.

The talented seven-year-old, partnered to victory by Paul Townend, led home a 1-2-3 for Willie Mullins with a classy display that saw him account for last month's King George third Footpad by 14 lengths.

This was a sixth career success – and a second in Grade 2 company – for the Sullivan Bloodstock-owned chaser, who had been thought to have a preference for going right-handed, but Townend was adamant his mount had shown nothing in his jumping on Sunday to suggest he needed to go in a certain direction.

"I was very pleased with how Real Steel jumped in the second half of the race when he needed to and how he stayed on," said Mullins, who enjoyed a high-quality treble on the card.

"I'd imagine we'll be looking at the Ryanair Chase with him."

Real Steel is flanked by jockey Paul Townend, groom Brendan Kenny, trainer Willie Mullins and his wife Jackie in the Thurles winner's enclosureCredit: Patrick McCann

Real Steel is now a 10-1 shot (from 20-1) for the Ryanair Chase at Cheltenham with Paddy Power, who quote him at 25-1 (from 50-1) for the Magners Cheltenham Gold Cup.

The champion trainer added: "Paul said he was as straight as a die today. We had been concerned before but there was no bias in his jumping today."

There was disappointment for supporters of 8-11 favourite Footpad, who raced too keenly at times and didn't find an extra gear for pressure as his stablemate upped the ante approaching the straight, leading Mullins to contemplate if his eight-year-old's Kempton exertions took their toll.

"I was disappointed with Footpad but he probably ran too free," he explained. "The pace was probably a little bit slow and the horses up front weren't jumping at the speed you would expect in a race like this.

"Daryl Jacob thought he did too much during the middle mile of the race and possibly missing the third-last fence didn't give him a chance to get his breath back. That left him exposed a bit and it fell into Paul's lap."

The Closutton handler added: "It's possible he could also go to the Ryanair but that's not his run and maybe he had too hard a race at Kempton and that impacted on his run. Voix Du Reve [eight and a half lengths behind Footpad in third] improved from his last run."

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