Connell thrilled with second place in Cheltenham Festival opener
The Barry Connell trained William Munny comes home in second behind Kopek Des Borders in the Michael O'Sullivan Supreme Novices' Hurdle Photo: ©INPHO/Tom Maher
Nurney trainer Barry Connell with the run of William Munny as he finished second to Kopek Des Bordes in the opening Michael O’Sullivan Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.
The race was named in honour of the jockey Michael O'Sullivan who enjoyed such great success with Connell when winning this race two years ago on Marine Nationale before sadly passing away last month in a tragic accident.
“This horse has a similar level of ability to Marine Nationale, but Marine is a chilled out dude in that he is very relaxed and he doesn’t pull," said Connell.
“In fairness to this horse he didn’t get worked up beforehand. He has grown up and he has settled today. I think the last race made a man of him.
“I would say that is one of the best novice hurdles we have had run around Cheltenham in a long time. I think the first two were miles clear of the rest so we were delighted.
“We know that our lad always runs to the line.
“We have only a small stable and the only edge we can do is give them that extra year or two. He didn’t run until he was six and we got him as a store horse at three so he had some maturity for his age.
“When he ran in his bumper last season he wouldn’t have been ready to run a month beforehand, even though he is not a big robust horse. We just wait for them to come to us and when they are ready to go we set them off.
“We will probably now go to Punchestown. We only have a length to find with the winner, but I would say that the winner is a bit special.
“We will either come back here for the Arkle next season or the Champion Hurdle next year, but I would say next season he is more likely to go over fences," he added..
Before the Festival began, there was a minute's applause in memory of O'Sullivan and he was still very close to the thoughts of all involved,
“The whole thing today is very poignant. This whole place is emotional on an ordinary day, but when you have something like this after the tragedy that happened to Michael, who was so closely associated with our yard, it is very raw,"said Connell.
