Apple’s Jade overpowers Vroum Vroum Mag in Hatton’s Grace at Fairyhouse

• Grade One victory boosts Gordon Elliott but frustrates Willie Mullins
• Michael O’Leary acknowledges Mullins’ role in sourcing Apple’s Jade

The keenly fought battle to be Ireland’s champion jumps trainer was represented on the track on Sunday when Apple’s Jade held off Vroum Vroum Mag in a head-bobbing finish to the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle. That continued the recent theme of success for the upwardly mobile trainer Gordon Elliott and frustration for the long-standing champion, Willie Mullins, trainer of the odds-on runner-up, though the older man had the better of it on the rest of Fairyhouse’s prestigious raceday.

For Mullins the additional sting in this outcome lay in his having had Apple’s Jade at his Carlow stable only three months ago until a fallout over fees with her owner, Michael O’Leary, resulted in the departure of 60 horses. The best of them went to Elliott, who has now won his first Hatton’s Grace and his first Grade One since Don Cossack landed the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March.

O’Leary acknowledged Mullins’s role in sourcing Apple’s Jade for him and offered the change of yards as part-explanation for the fact that she began her season with two defeats, at Down Royal and Newcastle. “She may have suffered a bit in the transition from Willie’s to Gordon’s,” the owner said. “When we ran her first, she probably just wasn’t fit enough. I think Newcastle brought her on a tonne.”

Elliott was praised for his brave decision to run Apple’s Jade only eight days after her narrow defeat in the Fighting Fifth but the County Meath trainer said his filly made the decision for him, having made such a show of wellbeing in the past week. “She actually put on weight since she went to Newcastle,” Elliott said.

“I even weighed her again this morning to check it was right. Martin Pipe always said I should weigh my horses and I thought it was a bit mad but I’ve started it this year. Maybe he’s right.”

Apple’s Jade is now expected to have a break until after Christmas, unless she somehow persuades Elliott to send her out again next weekend. Her Cheltenham Festival target is likely to be the subject of some debate, as she was cut to 14-1 for the Champion Hurdle by several firms but is only 11-4 for the Mares’ Hurdle, in which she may meet the runner-up again.

Related: Willie Mullins loses 60 Gigginstown Stud horses after training fees row

The World Hurdle could also be discussed, given how well she coped with this first attempt at two and a half miles. No horse as young as five has won that race for decades but then Apple’s Jade is the first four-year-old to win the Hatton’s Grace since it was created in 1994. For now, at least, Elliott seems clear in his own preference. “The Mares’ Hurdle will be her Gold Cup,” he said.

While there is no denying the winner’s bravery and resolution Vroum Vroum Mag did not appear to get the run of this race, being held up by Ruby Walsh at the back of the main bunch until the second-last flight. From there she made up several lengths in a short time to mount a strong challenge.

Asked if he had expected her to win at that stage, Mullins replied, wryly: “Probably but we also know what Apple’s Jade is, so I thought, ‘She’ll keep pulling it out,’ which she did. They had a real ding-dong battle. Two good mares.”

This was a first defeat for Vroum Vroum Mag in 11 races since she joined Mullins from France. The rest of her campaign can only be guessed at, since she has shown high-class form over hurdles and fences. “She can go anywhere,” Mullins said. “She’s an extraordinary mare, to do what she did. And we’ll see about the other horses as well. It’s not all about her. There’s others to think about.”

Bryan Cooper, who rode Apple’s Jade, had seemed at risk of having to sit out the Hatton’s Grace when he limped to an ambulance after an earlier fall. That became a theme of the day, as the first two jockeys home in the Drinmore Novice Chase were Mark Walsh and Barry Geraghty, who had been involved in a nasty incident in the previous contest, Geraghty’s mount bringing down Walsh’s.

Walsh pushed out Coney Island for a surprise Drinmore success, Eddie Harty’s charge having come here without a previous win over fences. But Harty said he had been sure of the horse’s quality and felt he would benefit from the stronger pace of a top-class contest.

Asked whether Coney Island was a Gold Cup prospect for a future season, Harty replied: “You’d like to think so. You hate to say those things with five-year-olds but you couldn’t have asked him to do a lot more than he did today and he travelled so well, it wasn’t like he just ground it out.

“All things being equal, you’d love to see him be a Gold Cup horse at some stage. There’s a lot of things to go right and not go wrong in the meantime, but that’s what we’d like to be thinking.”

The result meant a one-two for the owner JP McManus, who also has plenty to look forward to from the runner-up, Anibale Fly. An unexposed type from Tony Martin’s yard, he kept on nicely from the rear without quite getting into the argument.

Mullins got a Grade One winner on the card with Airlie Beach, who made all the running to land the Royal Bond Novice Hurdle despite jumping left at times. The favourite, Peace News, fell two-out, possibly as a result of being distracted by the winner crossing his line.