Kelly and Mall Dini come up trumps at big festival

PAT Kelly would hardly get a job in public relations, but his lone challenger at the Cheltenham National Hunt festival certainly showcased the training talents of the Craughwell-based handler.

Kelly could always train horses as underlined by the Guinness Galway Hurdle triumphs of Natalie’s Fancy (1992) and No Tag (1995), but his yard had fallen on relative lean times until he purchased Mall Dini from Tom Costello Jnr a couple of years ago.

Having won a bumper in Cork in March of 2015, Mall Dini subsequently landed a maiden hurdle in Thurles last December. The six-year-old was then stepped up in class and managed a succession of decent placed efforts on Grade One tracks at Leopardstown, Punchestown and Fairyhouse.

Having qualified for the Pertemps Network Final at Cheltenham, Mall Dini attracted some each way support for this hugely competitive handicap run over three miles. It was only Kelly’s third ever runner at the festival and he was hoping for better luck this time.

In 1990, Art Trail suffered a fatal leg injury coming down the hill in the Supreme Novices Hurdle, while four years later Take The Town unshipped a certain Willie Mullins in the National Hunt Chase.

The lightly raced Mall Dini was somewhat unexposed as the field faced the starter in the Cotswolds last Thursday. Carrying the colours of Philip Reynolds, son of former Taoiseach Albert, the 14/1 chance also had a proven festival pilot on his back.

Since 2006, Davy Russell has never returned from the sport’s flagship meeting without a winner and having steered Diamond King to victory in the Coral Cup 24 hours earlier, the Youghal native would not be lacking in confidence on Kelly’s stable star.

It was a rough enough race . . . eventual third If In Doubt met no shortage of trouble up the long home straight. In contrast, Mall Dini had made eye-catching headway approaching the second last and arrived at the final obstacle closing in on the leaders.

Though the horse jumped left at that flight and then hung up the hill, the Galway challenger still had the stamina to lead in the final 150 yards, coming home three quarters of a length in front of Arpege D’Alene from the Paul Nicholls yard.

It was no surprise a stewards’ inquiry was called, but after relatively quick deliberations Mall Dini was confirmed the winner as Kelly became the second Craughwell trainer – following in the footsteps of Paul Gilligan and Berties Dream in 2010 – to experience glory at the biggest National Hunt meeting of them all.

It was the classic small-man operation success. Kelly says he has only seven horses and two staff, but his ability to get the best out of his string was underlined by winning jockey Russell’s post race comments. “All credit goes to Pat Kelly; he’s a genius and had the horse spot on. We felt he would enjoy the drier ground.”

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.