‘Porter’ floors rivals to land Stayers’ prize after Mullins steps in late

High drama as Cromwell’s winning jockey fills in at 11th hour for selfless Moore

Danny Mullins riding Flooring Porter celebrates winning The Paddy Power Stayers' Hurdle at Cheltenham. Photo: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images

Michael Verney

March 19 2021 02:30 AM

Lying would have been the easiest thing for Jonathan Moore to do, but passing himself fit to ride when he knew that was anything but the case was something he simply couldn’t contemplate and Danny Mullins was the one to profit from his selflessness with Stayers’ Hurdle glory aboard Flooring Porter (12/1).

Moore had partnered Flooring Porter – aptly named as one owner has a carpet business while the other runs a pub – to a shock Grade One success at Leopardstown over Christmas and was central to his remarkable rise from lowly handicapper to top-class staying hurdler, but a fall at Naas on Sunday had left him aching.

It was not possible for the Wexford native to stand tall in his irons when he partnered the six-year-old in routine work yesterday morning and tears were shed when he informed trainer Gavin Cromwell that he just wasn’t physically up for the task.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Moore, but so was Cheltenham Festival glory for Flooring Porter and what was best for the horse was all that mattered to him as he advised Cromwell who might be best to deputise on the renowned front-runner.

Moore may not have been in the saddle, but he was the first to greet Mullins after the finishing line as Flooring Porter ran them ragged to score by just over three lengths and more tears were quickly shed.

“He was the first man to come and congratulate me and that was a real bittersweet moment for him and a real mark of a solid man to congratulate me first and foremost.

“I had my feet in the irons but he had done all the work,” Mullins said of Moore’s character despite obvious heartbreak.

Cromwell shot to fame when masterminding Champion Hurdle success for the ill-fated Espoir D’Allen two years ago and to garner another championship prize with a horse that cost “small money” was “a bit of a fairytale” for the Meath trainer.

“We won a Champion Hurdle a couple of years ago and it was massive. I didn’t think I’d ever win a race in Cheltenham, and to come back and win a second one is fantastic,” the Navan handler beamed.

Mullins only received the call to partner Cromwell’s charge an hour before the race with Moore briefing him on the horse’s idiosyncrasies before his greatest moment in racing unfolded in the most bizarre of circumstances after several failures.

“It’s fantastic to get a Cheltenham Festival winner, to win a Grade One is great as well. I’m lucky enough that I rode a very good horse today. I’ve probably given horses that were beaten better rides, I just had to steer this one. It’s special,” Mullins, son of trainer Tony, said.

“I was chatting to my dad before the race and my mother as well. The Mullinses, we are very close, very competitive, we like beating each other. My mother beat me here a few years ago (with Martello Tower in the 2015 Albert Bartlett), but when one of us wins, we’re all proud for each other and I’m delighted to be on the scoresheet here.”

The Mullins family would be celebrating again just minutes later after Danny’s cousin Emmet orchestrated a sensational coup with The Shunter, the well-supported 9/4 favourite, earning a £100,000 bonus after landing the Paddy Power Plate by three lengths under Jordan Gainford.

Emmet, who trains beside his uncle Willie at Closutton and often uses his gallops, switched the eight-year-old back to fences after scoring at Kelso in the Morebattle Hurdle two weeks ago to give another illustration of his training acumen while landing his maiden Festival win.

Mullins admitted that the plan “has just fallen into place” since his Cheltenham success in the Greatwood Hurdle last November while the addition of 7lb conditional rider Gainford was another masterstroke under the instruction of owner Paul Byrne.

“Jordan is catching everyone in Ireland’s eye at the moment,” Mullins said of the 20-year-old Wexford rider. “He’s very talented and the owner was fairly insistent on claiming 7lb, and at that Jordan was the only option. He’s very good and he showed that here.”

Bryan Cooper was in Gainford’s position not long ago as the up-and-coming jockey who had the world at his feet following Gold Cup success for Don Cossack in 2016 and a series of high-profile winners, but the walls came crumbling down not long after and it has taken time for the Kerry native to catch his feet again.

Cooper lost his retained rider role with Gigginstown and fell out of favour, but Paul Nolan helped to pick him back up and they combined when Mrs Milner (named after Liverpool soccer star James) landed the Pertemps by five lengths.

It was four years since Cooper’s last Festival win and he savoured it.

“It’s great. I can tell you it’s been a lonely couple of years walking out of this place without any winners when you get used to riding them,” the 28-year-old said of his ninth Cheltenham Festival winner.

“I had to start at the bottom and work my way up, there was nobody going to hold my hand and do it for me.

“I’m a big boy now and it was up to me to change things around and I’m just so grateful to be getting these rides, I just have to start enjoying it now again.”

It was a third Festival triumph for Nolan, some 10 years after his last with Noble Prince, and the Wexford trainer enjoyed it from the comfort of his kitchen with his wife as they “jumped around like two four-year-olds who had just received their presents from Santa”.