Cheltenham champion jockey shares festival fears for odds-on favourite as he admits 'I’d be a little bit worried'
Cheltenham-winning jockey Paddy Flood has outlined his big Festival fears for opening-race hotpot Kopek Des Bordes.
Willie Mullins’ highly-talented youngster is an odds-on shot to win the meeting’s curtain-raiser, the SkyBet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. But Flood, won the 2009 Coral Cup aboard Ninetieth Minute, has big concerns for the favourite amid the electric atmosphere in horse racing’s greatest show on turf.
The Irish Grand National winning ex-pilot has no doubts about five-year-old's huge ability after he improved on a Boxing Day Maiden hurdle success at Leopardstown to blitz home on the same track in a Grade 1 at the Dublin Racing Festival to storm clear in the Cheltenham betting market.
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But, speaking on the irishracing.com Cheltenham preview, Flood said: “His jumping in his maiden hurdle was septic. There’s no ifs or buts about it, he was horrendous. I just think Patrick [Mullins] didn’t click with him at all. Whatever happened between the two of them, nothing went right. I’d be a little bit worried. There is a lot that can go wrong with him.
“He is highly strung. Paul [Townend] rode him at Leopardstown and jumped him out really smart to jump. He wasn’t worried about anything else. He was teaching him to come back. The horse never done any of that naturally. Paul had done that all for him. So for me, going to a Supreme, the pressure, the crowd, the roars, he looks like one that could really run to the first and either jump it really well and be too keen, or miss it and end up in the bunch and everything will be very new to him.
“There is no doubting his ability. That [DRF} was a huge win. Something in the back of my head is just telling me if I was going there [Cheltenham] to ride him, I’d be a little bit worried about him. Whether a hood goes on or something like that. I don’t know whether he needs it or not.
“But if I was a rider going there, I’m thinking: Whoa, I want to nearly get down to the start a furlong before them, walk, keep everything very quiet, which you can’t do in a Supreme. Everyone’s revved. Horses are revved. Jockeys are revved. It’s the first race of the meeting. Paul is going to be a little bit tight as well, that sort of way. He’s going to be short-priced on the day, but I really like Romeo Coolio.
“I think if Jack {Kennedy]’s not back and Sam [Ewing] rides him, he can do what he wants. He could jump off on Paul’s boot and try and make Paul get run away with it because his horse will just go to sleep. If I was him, that’s what I’d be doing. I’d be making his life horrendous and mine easy and try and get him in trouble and then pick up the pieces.”
