'Vauban strikes me as a Melbourne Cup horse but can win Champion Hurdle first'

Friday: Triumph Hurdle, Cheltenham

It takes a special horse to win a race at the Cheltenham Festival and the fallout to include talk of tilts at the Champion Hurdle and Melbourne Cup, but that could just be a signal of the regard in which the exciting Vauban is held.

A hype horse in the build-up to the meeting, he let his talent speak for itself when travelling with ease in the JCB-backed Triumph Hurdle, which his master trainer Willie Mullins was winning for the third time.

David Casey, a former jump jockey and now an integral part of the world-leading Mullins operation, joked the idea of a trip to Australia had come out because he was fond of Flemington, but there was more to it than that when the leading trainer extolled the virtues of the French-bred four-year-old, who runs in the distinctive pink and lime silks of Susannah Ricci and her charismatic husband Rich.

Full result and replay from the Triumph Hurdle

They were in buoyant mood after seeing Vauban toy with a tidy Triumph field which included smart Gordon Elliott pair Fil Dor and Pied Piper, who finished second and third but were no match for the impressive 6-4 winner, getting favourite backers off to a final-day flyer under Paul Townend.

Put to Mullins he might have a special horse on his hands, he said: "I think so. He won that without the experience he should have and I think he was looking at everything when he hit the front – the cameras more than anything else – but he picked up quickly again and went on like a good horse.

"You'd have to think of the Champion Hurdle and he has a great Flat rating to work with. I think he'll improve with age and, with the Flat rating he has, he'd be good enough to contest those Cup races."

A trip to the Punchestown festival may be on the cards for the son of Galiway before next season is geared towards the Champion Hurdle, for which Vauban is 7-1 (from 14) with Paddy Power.

If a trip down under for the Melbourne Cup comes it could be in 2023.

"I'll have a word with Rich, but what I imagine we'll do is hurdle this first season, then give him the summer off, hurdle next season and then go Flat racing after that," added Mullins, not daunted by the prospect of a potential Champion Hurdle winner mixing it in a different sphere.

"I don't think it would be a bold move," he went on. "Champion Hurdle winners have, over the years, gone on the Flat and I remember Peter Easterby doing it.

"In previous generations they went back to the Flat because they were top-class Flat horses. Those horses aren't bought to go jumping now because they get sold to Australia or Dubai. It's very hard for jumps trainers to get quality Flat horses like him."

Triumphant: Paul Townend celebrates Vauban's victory in the Triumph HurdleCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

It meant the world to festival king Mullins to win the Champion Chase with Energumene on Wednesday, but scratching the Melbourne Cup itch would provide particular satisfaction.

Simenon finished fourth in Australia's greatest race for the stable in 2013, while Max Dynamite was second in 2015 and third two years later.

"I've got a bit of unfinished business in Australia," he said. "But I don't think it will be this year, it might be something like November 2023.

"We've been placed in it and it's a race I'd love to win. It's a fantastic race and the atmosphere in Melbourne is one of the greatest – it rivals Cheltenham."

Mullins, the most successful trainer in festival history, knows what a Cheltenham winner looks like and, given his experiences in the Melbourne Cup, reckons he might have identified the one for it.

"Every day of the week he strikes me as that," he said, which might be music to assistant Casey's ears.

The winning time: instant reaction

By Dave Edwards, Topspeed

Vauban stopped the clock at 4m 5.85s, which was 8.85 sec slower than Racing Post Standard and indicative of good to soft ground.

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