Butterfly spreads her wings
Like-A-Butterfly has come good after a chequered season and the tough mare recorded her second big-race success in less than a fortnight with a convincing victory in the John Smith’s Mildmay Novices’ Chase at Aintree today.
After winning her first race over fences at Naas in November, she was pulled up at Leopardstown over Christmas and was later found to be suffering from a blood disorder.
The Christy Roche-trained mare was out of action until the Cheltenham Festival, where she finished fifth in the Royal & SunAlliance Chase.
But she bounced back with a game victory in a Grade One contest at Fairyhouse 10 days ago.
Clearly none the worse for what appeared a hard race that day, Like-A-Butterfly (6-1) got the better of the front-running See You Sometime by a length and three-quarters, with another one and a half back to L’Ami, the 7-2 favourite, in third.
The winner was given a peach of a ride by Tony McCoy, who bided his time on the 11-year-old before producing her to lead on the run to the penultimate fence.
Like-A-Butterfly soon had the race in the bag and comfortably held off the rallying runner-up.
Roche said: “She ran at Christmas at Leopardstown and when we got her home her blood was wrong. She sweated up a lot at the races, because she was sick.
“We were never able to pin down exactly what was wrong with her, but we got her to Cheltenham, which in hindsight was probably the wrong thing to do, but Cheltenham is like a bug and you want to get there. Cheltenham was a bit soon.
“When she won the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle she was near her best, but she has never got back to the level she was as a bumper mare. I doubt she ever will, but we are delighted to have her.”
Connections had been considering retiring the J P McManus-owned mare.
“I wanted to retire her before Cheltenham but Frank Berry (the owner’s racing manager) was adamant she’d get through it,” Roche added
“Whether she retires or not will be down to JP. She’s not the mare she was but she’s pretty good to win a big race at Fairyhouse and go to Liverpool and win another.
“There aren’t many mares who have won a Grade One bumper, hurdle and chase.”
When asked if she would race on, McManus said: “Why not? I’ll leave it to Christy. She’s 11 now but she’s in very good hands with Christy as he loves her more than he loves himself. He really, really cares about her.”
McCoy said: “She has improved and got better since Cheltenham. She is just a very good horse and still very professional.
“She got a little bit close to the third-last, but that was her only blemish.”
See You Sometime now heads to Punchestown, while Francois Doumen is looking forward to a fruitful season with L’Ami in the big staying races next year.
Mighty Man stretched his unbeaten run to four when getting the better of Dusky Warbler in a thrilling finish to the John Smith’s Top Novices’ Hurdle.
Henry Daly’s exciting prospect was held up by Richard Johnson before making smooth headway on the inside to hit the front two out, but he needed to be kept up to his work to hold off McCoy and Dusky Warbler by half a length.
Daly said: “I think he’s pretty smart. He’s the fastest two-mile novice I have and quite how far he will go, I have no idea.
“He’s improving and will continue to improve. He’s got a lot of ability.”
Daly bypassed the Cheltenham Festival for this Grade Two event and he added: “He’s a very buzzy horse, on his toes, and just needs time to grow up in himself.
“I doubt he will run again this season – we will just think where we go from there.
“I like fences but we might think about hurdles next year. He will make a nice novice chaser in the future.”
The victory earned Mighty Man a quote of 25-1 from totesport for next year’s Smurfit Champion Hurdle.
Johnson added: “I didn’t want to be on my own too long on him – it’s only the fourth run of his life, and he was idling a bit at the end. But the one thing he does is try.
“He really put his head down, and the more you ask, he does as much as he can for you.”
Dusky Warbler’s part-owner Rodger Sargent said: “We are only 18 inches away from the winner’s enclosure, but it feels like a mile away. I really thought we would win today and I am feeling gutted.
“AP said he wants it softer than it was today. He missed out the third-last too, which didn’t help.
“We were talking about going to Punchestown but I’m not sure we’ll bother now. My first instinct is that next season he will go novice chasing, but I need to talk to Gary (Moore) about that.”
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