Punchestown plan for Mrs Milner

Nolan’s Pertemps winner has recovered well from Cheltenham exertions.

Paul Nolan plans to head to Punchestown next with his Cheltenham Festival heroine Mrs Milner.

Nolan’s Pertemps Final winner has recovered well from last week’s trip to Britain, and Nolan has already pencilled in a potential target at the six-day Punchestown Festival – which begins at the end of April.

“We were delighted with her,” said the County Wexford trainer.

“She’s very well – she came out of the race great.

“We’ll make some decisions shortly – she’ll probably aim for something at Punchestown.”

Having won a hugely competitive race by five lengths off a mark of 134, Mrs Milner may be heading out of handicaps.

“There’s not much for her – she’s probably at the stage now where she’s coming out of handicap company, up near the 140s,” added Nolan.

“In Ireland it’s very, very difficult to win off top-weight in a handicap – so she’ll probably have to take on horses at graded level now, which is not simple.

“At least if she moves out of the fillies’ races she has a 7lb allowance – and as we’ve seen from Cheltenham, it’s been a year for the fillies.

Mrs Milner clears the last to win the Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle during day three of the Cheltenham Festival
Mrs Milner clears the last to win the Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival (Alan Crowhurst/PA)

“She’s only a young mare, and if she continues to improve, maybe she can throw a bit of a blow at the highest level.”

Nolan also reflected on the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase performance of Monkfish, who is the three-time nemesis to date of his own high-class novice Latest Exhibition.

The two rivals first crossed paths in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle at last year’s Festival, and have twice met in Grade One chases since graduating to fences.

On each occasion Monkfish has prevailed, leaving Nolan to sidestep the Festival in order to avoid another unfavourable encounter with the Willie Mullins-trained chestnut.

Latest Exhibition (left) taking on Monkfish in the Neville Hotels Novice Chase during the Leopardstown Christmas Festival
Latest Exhibition (left) taking on Monkfish in the Neville Hotels Novice Chase during the Leopardstown Christmas Festival (PA)

Monkfish was triumphant again at Cheltenham, but his somewhat sticky round of jumping produced a less emphatic win than expected and caused many to ponder how Latest Exhibition would have fared had he run.

“He still won,” Nolan said of Monkfish’s Cheltenham performance.

“People say to me ‘you should never be afraid of taking on one horse’, but I’d taken him on three times and been beaten three times, so there was a little bit of an inevitability about things as well.

“He still won the race – he did make mistakes, but he still picked up well and went to the line.

“We can all say ‘maybe this’ or ‘maybe that’, but the horse still won the race – and there’s no reason to think the tighter track on the inside would have suited my horse at Cheltenham either.

“We made a decision and we said that no matter what happens, we’re not going to be sorry.”

Latest Exhibition and Bryan Cooper celebrate winning the Nathaniel Lacy & Partners Solicitors 50,000 Cheltenham Bonus For Stable Staff Novice Hurdle
Latest Exhibition and Bryan Cooper celebrate winning the Nathaniel Lacy & Partners Solicitors 50,000 Cheltenham Bonus For Stable Staff Novice Hurdle (PA)

Latest Exhibition will head next to Fairyhouse, for the Underwriting Exchange Gold Cup Novice Chase. Envoi Allen holds an entry there, but appears more likely to wait for Punchestown.

“I hope to God we can come back, because I’d love to end up winning with him before the end of the season,” said Nolan.

“He’s only won once this season and if I was told that at the start of the campaign, I’d certainly be disappointed.

“So we’re trying to rectify that – and hopefully we’ll have made the right decision come Fairyhouse.”

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