Walsh takes brilliant John Durkan win on new superstar
Mark Walsh aboard Fact To File after winning the John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Steeplechase Photo: ©INPHO/Peter Mooney
Local jockey Mark Walsh landed the Grade One John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase with Fact To File after a wonderful renewal of the feature race today at the Kildare track.
The race was billed as something special before the off and thoroughly lived up to it’s billing.
Going over the last jump, double Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs and the horse that has beaten him three times at Punchestown, including in last year’s John Durkan, Fastorslow were right there with their chances but it was two and up coming horses who pulled clear.
Fact To File’s talent has long been earmarked, with Willie Mullins picking him out as a future Gold Cup horse last year, and he took the lead but it looked for all the world that Spillane’s Tower was coming to win.
What a story it would have been for a small trainer like Jimmy Mangan to win such a prestigious race. With Jack Kennedy on board looking to complete a Grade 1 double after winning Saturday’s Morgiana Hurdle, Spillane’s Tower finished strongly but Fact To File was able to dig deep and grind out a win that rubber stamps the immense potential that many shrewd judges believe him to have.
“What a race. A brilliant renewal of the John Durkan, probably the best ever,” said winning trainer Willie Mullins.
“I loved the way Fact To File stayed on after looking beaten. I thought he was beaten halfway up the run-in, and Mark said he took a blow, but when he got his second wind, he stayed on well to win.
“It was a fantastic run from Spillane’s Tower, another novice in senior company, and what I really liked about Galopin Des Champs is that the horse that tried to stay with him over the first mile, Grangeclare West, had to pull up before the last, and yet Galopin Des Champs stayed on to be third.
“And Fastorslow had a fantastic run on a track he loves. There were plusses for a lot of the horses that ran in the race.
“It’s going to be some race when you look back at it at the end of the season. I think all of these horses are going to win big races, it was a hell of a race.”
