Mulholland’s Midnight chasing Gold Cup glory
It is always exciting to see an up-and-coming young trainer find a horse that matches his own enthusiasm and determination, and in the rapidly improving Midnight Chase former jockey Neil Mulholland has a horse who could help him scale the heights of the National Hunt game.
Mulholland has already passed his previous best seasonal total of 18 winners achieved last term, and as Midnight Chase staged an astonishing late rally to get back up close to him to win the listed Majordomo Hospitality Handicap Chase at Cheltenham on Saturday from Presenting Forever, his trainer and his owner Lady Clarke were not out of line in wondering if their charge could be worthy of a place in the ultimate blue riband event at the course in three months time – the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Midnight Chase has now won 11 of his 20 career starts and (whilst he was a fair hurdler who finished second in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in 2009 at the rewarding odds of 100/1), there is no doubt that he has excelled over the larger obstacles and is a seriously progressive horse.
A winner of six of his last seven races over fences (including the last four in a row), the gelded son of Midnight Legend is now approaching an official handicap mark of 160, and having improved in every race this year it might yet be that there is better still to come.
Bookmakers slashed the fixed odds of a Midnight Chase win at Cheltenham in March to a best-priced 25/1 (having been available at 50’s prior to last weekend’s race), and with the horse having forged such a successful partnership with jockey Dougie Costello, and being so well suited to the undulations of Cheltenham, there are certainly worse value ante-post bets on odds comparison sites at shorter prices at the moment.
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