No hurry to map out plans for Galway Hurdle second Milkwood

Ashley Iveson
August 2, 2021 10:57 am

Hurdle, chase and possibly Flat options under consideration.

Neil Mulholland is keen to let the dust settle on Milkwood’s excellent effort in last week’s Galway Hurdle before making future plans.

Making his first appearance since winning the Scottish Champion Hurdle at Ayr in April, the seven-year-old produced a fine performance to fill the runner-up spot behind the Willie Mullins-trained Grade One winner Saldier.

“It was a great run and we were over the moon with him,” said Mulholland.

“He was a bit short of room after the last, but that’s the Galway Hurdle and you have to take the good with the bad. We were obviously very, very happy with how he performed on the day.

What a performance! 🔥
Saldier defies top-weight to secure a thrilling Guinness Galway Hurdle Handicap for Patrick Mullins and @WillieMullinsNH 👏 👏#GiddyforGalway #GalwayRaces @GuinnessIreland pic.twitter.com/jIQee6vPjg

— Galway Races (@Galway_Races) July 29, 2021

“He’s very solid. He’d been out in the field for a month or five weeks after his run in Scotland and thankfully the plan worked.

“He picked up EURO 50,000 for finishing second, which is twice as much as he got for winning the Scottish Champion Hurdle.”

Mulholland plans to consult discuss options with Milkwood’s owners in the coming days, with the Somerset-based trainer happy to consider races over hurdles, over fences and perhaps even on the Flat.

“We’ll speak to the owner later in the week and see where we’re going to go from here,” he added.

Neil Mulholland was delighted with Milkwood's performance in the Galway Hurdle — Neil Mulholland was delighted with Milkwood’s performance in the Galway Hurdle (David Davies/PA)

“There are so many options. The owner wanted to go novice chasing last year and I convinced her not to. His run the other day would make you wonder whether he should be going novice chasing as it looks like he could still pick up quite a bit of prize-money over hurdles.

“He was rated 150 this time last week. We’ll see what the English handicapper does now, but he might just be gone out of handicaps now.

“There is nothing jumping out at you in the next month or so. The only thing that is in the back of my head is he has such a good Flat pedigree and the way he travels, you wonder whether you could look at that (running on the Flat).

“We’ll know more later in the week. We’ll see how he is and have a cup of tea with the owner and go from there.”