Carefully Selected edges out Dunboyne in Thyestes thriller

Favourite prevails by a short head in Gowran feature.

Carefully Selected gave further evidence of the remarkable training talents of Willie Mullins with a pulsating victory in the Goffs Thyestes Chase at Gowran Park.

While successful in six of his first 10 starts under Rules, the Well Chosen gelding unseated the trainer’s son Patrick as an odds-on favourite for the 2020 National Hunt Chase at the Cheltenham Festival and was subsequently sidelined for the best part of three years.

But having shaped with some promise on his long-awaited return in the Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown last month, the 11-year-old was the 9-2 favourite to provide Mullins with a ninth victory in the EURO 100,000 feature at his local track.

Ridden by Paul Townend, previously successful in the Thyestes aboard On His Own in 2014, Carefully Selected charted a wide course for much of the three-mile-one-furlong journey.

After losing his position with a circuit to race, he made ground onto the heels of the leaders before the home turn and landed in front at the second fence from home.

Dunboyne, one of nine runners for Mullins’ great rival Gordon Elliott, emerged as a major threat on the run-in and the pair flashed by the line almost as one – but the judge confirmed Carefully Selected the winner by a short head.

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