Sober easily accounted for two rivals to give Willie Mullins his fifth straight victory in the Grade 2 Sky Bet Moscow Flyer Novice Hurdle and leave connections eyeing the Cheltenham Festival and Melbourne Cup, either side of an attempt to defend his Queen Alexandra Stakes crown at Royal Ascot.
The seven-year-old joined Closutton last year having won six times on the Flat in France, and he hit the ground running on his hurdles debut when landing a novice event at Killarney in May followed by an impressive five-length success at Royal Ascot under Ryan Moore.
Having been off 204 days since, he was quite easy to back in the three-runner market, drifting from 11-8 to 9-4, while the Gordon Elliott-trained Road Exile was the subject of heavy support into 8-11 having been as big as 7-4 in the morning.
Sober lost a bit of ground with an extremely cumbersome leap at the first, but his jumping was sharp on the whole as Paul Townend watched on from the rear.
Townend made his move jumping two out when passing stablemate Free Spirit, and as they straightened for home there was only going to be one winner, with Sober moving menacingly behind the flat-out Road Exile before moving five and a half lengths clear on the run to the line, with Free Spirit keeping on to finish half a length further back in third.
“He had a break after Ascot and we thought he’d improve for this,” said assistant trainer David Casey. “We thought he might need a bit further, but maybe his Flat class and experience told. He put it to bed well.
“Paul said he quickened very well, probably better than what he expected. He was delighted with him and a stronger, truer-run race would probably suit him as well.
“He was a bit sketchy at the first, but you’d expect that after not having run for so long. I think Free Spirit will improve loads. He’s a completely different type having had just the two hurdles races in France, but he jumped well and kept galloping.”
Given his class on the Flat and the fact he races in the colours of the Australian-based OTI Racing, the Melbourne Cup is likely to be in the pipeline, but a tilt at the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle could be the more immediate target, for which he was cut into 20-1 (from 33) by sponsors Sky Bet.
“He’s entered in the two-mile race at the Dublin Racing Festival, but that might be too close,” said Casey. “We’ll leave that decision until closer to the time. He won at Ascot and hopefully he might end up back there. Given his owners [OTI Racing and The Why Knot Partnership], we’d be thinking about November [Melbourne Cup] maybe.”
Sober emerged as one of Mullins’ main hopes for the Cheltenham Festival curtain-raiser, alongside Limerick maiden winner King Rasko Grey, the unbeaten Davy Crockett and French recruit Fou De Toi, who has yet to be seen this season.
The layers are yet to fully agree on Sober’s Cheltenham prospects, with his price ranging from 14-1 to 20-1 and similar for the Turners Novices’ Hurdle, but Ruby Walsh was impressed by the speed the winner displayed after some early jumping concerns.
“Sober had a huge look at the first hurdle and jammed on, but was much better thereafter,” said Walsh, speaking in his role as a pundit for Racing TV. “Being an ex-Flat horse, he had too much speed for the others.
“Watching it, I thought Paul wouldn’t go near Road Exile until the last hurdle, but I don’t think he could keep Sober behind him any longer.
“He had too many gears and was much too quick for the runner-up. Paul said go and Sober quickened up really well. It was a really good performance, and he improved a lot from his hurdling debut at Killarney.”
The above article is from Racing Post and can be found here.