Races
PART THREE | THIS TIME TWO WEEKS AGO: Flooring Porter dominates his rivals in the Stayers’ Hurdle
Gavin Cromwell’s Flooring Porter proved the top-of-the-pile in the three-mile division over timber
Flooring Porter ran his rivals ragged in a masterful front-running display at the Cheltenham Festival under Danny Mullins.
After Henry de Bromhead duo Honeysuckle and Put The Kettle On took the championship races on the first two days, the momentum would very much remain with the Irish-based contingent on St Patrick’s Thursday.
A recent Grade One winner at Leopardstown, Flooring Porter made no mistake on his Festival debut and took the spoils ahead of two-time Pertemps victor Sire Du Berlais and 2019 winner of the race, Paisley Park.
It proved to be one of six wins from seven possible races for Irish runners on the day, with sole British winner Chantry House earlier landing the Marsh after the surprise fall of Envoi Allen.
Phillip Hobbs’ stable-star Thyme Hill missed the Festival as a result of a minor injury, but a head-to-head between the two next campaign in front of a crowd will no doubt be quite the spectacle.
The winner, however, will head for an Irish festival this spring as opposed to a jaunt to Merseyside, his handler confirmed recently.
“The horses have come back good. The plan is Punchestown for Flooring Porter and Vanillier,” Gavin Cromwell told Luck On Sunday.
“There’s the three-mile novice and the three-mile stayers’. They are the obvious races for them. They’ve come out of Cheltenham good, so that’s the plan.
