A ‘very, very exciting’ Willie Mullins horse is being tipped for more glory – after his shock 100-1 Cheltenham upset.
Brighton supremo Tony Bloom was in clover after seeing his £200,000 hurdling debutant Poniros somehow win the Triumph Hurdle last Friday.
Poniros was the biggest-price Cheltenham Festival winner in 35 years[/caption]
Given next to no chance by bookies, Poniros powered home up the hill to snatch the Grade 1 from Nicky Hendersom’s Lulamba.
Punters are already expecting to be treated to a ‘race of the season’ in a Champion Hurdle rematch at next month’s Punchestown Festival.
And that’s where we could next see potential superstar Poniros too.
All eyes will be on the former Ralph Beckett-trained Flat star who ran for football superagent Kia Joorabchians’s Amo Racing operation in that sphere.
Poniros was the biggest-priced Cheltenham Festival winner since Norton’s Coin Gold Cup miracle in 1990.
And though no one really knows what to expect on his next run, his campaign is being plotted out.
Bloom’s racing manager Sean Graham said: “I spoke both with Willie and David Casey (assistant trainer) and for both of them their initial thoughts were Punchestown.
“But we’ll just have to see how the horse comes out of the race because that was his first run over hurdles.
“We don’t know how much that has taken out of him, but if he tells us he’s fighting fit and healthy then I can see no reason we wouldn’t go to Punchestown with him.
“If he’d only jumped all right at Cheltenham, completed the course and finished mid-division we’d have still been delighted.
“And the top two horses in the market were second and third behind him, so I don’t think there was any fluke about it.
“We’ll try not to get too excited, hopefully we’ll go to Punchestown now but if not we’ll maybe think about Royal Ascot.”
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