Spillane’s Tower digs deep to complete Grade One double

Jimmy Mangan’s charge was just too strong for Monty’s Star at Punchestown.

Spillane’s Tower made it back-to-back Grade One victories for trainer Jimmy Mangan with a determined display in the Dooley Insurance Group Champion Novice Chase at Punchestown.

Best known as the trainer of 2003 Grand National hero Monty’s Pass, Mangan was claiming his first top-level success in 16 years when this JP McManus-owned gelding landed the WillowWarm Gold Cup at Fairyhouse on Easter Sunday, with Conna Castle his only previous Grade One winner in the same race in 2008.

Stepping up to three miles for the first time, Spillane’s Tower was a 5-2 joint-favourite for his latest big-race assignment and came out on top after a titanic tussle with market rival Monty’s Star.

Three Card Brag took the field along for much of the way before the big two settled down to fight it out in the straight.

While Spillane’s Tower travelled the better of the pair, Monty’s Star, who found only the much-heralded Fact To File too strong in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase at the Cheltenham Festival, dug deep to stay in the fight, but Mangan’s charge proved three-quarters of a length too strong.

Paddy Power reacted by cutting Spillane’s Tower’s odds for next year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup to 16-1 from 33-1. McManus has several contenders for the blue riband, with 4-1 shot Fact To File, 10-1 chance Inothewayurthinkin and 20-1 hope Corbetts Cross also in the mix at this early stage.

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