San Francisco Frontiers - Impressive Fact To File gives Mullins' eve of Gold Cup confidence-booster

The 6-4 favourite was diverted to this Grade One contest rather than tackle his stablemate in the big one, the blue riband of jump racing, on Friday.

The plan paid off handsomely.

His main rival in the betting, Il Est Francais, quickly made his way to the front of the field to try and make all, tracked all the time by Mark Walsh sitting pretty on board Fact To File.

Mullins' runner cruised past the French challenger round the home turn, skipping over the last fence to storm up the hill as one of the classiest winners in the Cotswolds this week.

"He won very easily, a proper horse," smiled Mullins after taking his record tally of Festival winners to 109.

"They went a good gallop, he got his jumping right, coming off the bend I don't think Mark was worried," added the Irish training titan.

"It's a surprise in the manner he's won it, you had Il Est Francais and Protektorat (last year's winner), they are good horses, and he's able to beat them like that which is huge."

Asked by ITV Racing about the decision to run him here rather than in the Gold Cup he replied: "He was in the Gold Cup, we thought better to divide our options, he'll be a Gold Cup horse next year.

"A year older, we didn't want him to have a real hard race in the Gold Cup this year."

Rachael Blackmore won the Grade One Stayers' Hurdle on Bob Olinger for a double on the day after landing the opening novices' hurdle on Air of Entitlement.

"He was brilliant, he has so much speed and he was able to use it there today," said Blackmore after coming from the back of the field on Bob Olinger to deny 7-4 favourite Teahupoo.

Blackmore, who in 2021 became the first woman jockey to win the Grand National, riding Minella Times, was celebrating her 18th Festival winner.

Caldwell Potter repaid a slice of his 740,000 euros ($804,000) purchase price when making all in the two mile four furlong (4000m) handicap chase for trainer Paul Nicholls' 50th Festival winner.

The grey was sporting the distinctive yellow racing silks belonging to John Hales, the man who made his fortune from toys and who died in January.

Hales had an affinity for grey horses, enjoying notable success with the likes of two-time King George VI Chase winner One Man and 2012 Grand National hero Neptune Collonges.

- 'Inspirational man' -

"I'm delighted for the Hales family, John'll be up there watching" said Nicholls.

On his winner's six-figure price tag Nicholls commented: "It's irrelevant what they cost, we treat them all the same when they arrive in the yard. He's a proper horse, he just needed patience."

Doddiethegreat, named after Scottish rugby icon Doddie Weir who died of motor neurone disease aged 52 in 2022, fought off his better fancied stablemate Jeriko du Reponet in the three mile handicap hurdle.

"I was lucky enough to meet Doddie one time, he was a very inspirational man," said winning jockey Brian Hughes.

Nicky Henderson, the trainer of the first two home, noted: "All the prize money goes to the Doddie Weir foundation".

Cheltenham's new chief executive Guy Lavender meanwhile defended crowd figures at the four-day festival.

The former boss of Lord's cricket ground was speaking after Wednesday's crowd of 41,949 represented a fall of 5,000 on 2024 for the smallest crowd this century at 'racing's Olympics'.

"I know everyone is interested in numbers, what I'm interested in is the experience people are having," Lavender told ITV Racing.

"Our challenge is to make the experience here what racegoers want," he added.

"There's no one single factor you can put it (the decline) on, you have to get value proposition right,

"I think we are really delivering on that.

"I'm determined to grow the audience to ensure Cheltenham remains the pinnacle, one of the most famous sporting events in the world."

X.White--SFF