Carefully Selected (far side) jumps the last upsides Lord Schnitzel© Photo Healy Racing
4/7 favourite Carefully Selected duly landed the odds on his chasing debut in the opening Jim Ryan Racecourse Services Beginners’ Chase for Willie and Danny Mullins.
The Well Chosen gelding was always prominent, but made a bad mistake two out when mistiming his jump and losing his back-end on landing.
He looked in trouble at that point, dropping to third place, but picked up well again to lead after jumping the last and he stayed on strongly to draw three and three quarter lengths ahead of Lord Schnitzel (12/1), with Captain Cj (6/1) another length and a quarter back in third place.
There was a gamble on Off You Go (11s into 5/1 on track, having been 25/1 in places this morning) and he was staying on well to get into contention when coming down at the last.
The winner, a point-to-point winner at Monksgrange a couple of years ago, was touched off by stable companion Relegate in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham in 2018, and was Grade 1-placed behind Minella Indo over hurdles at Punchestown in May after a light campaign last term.
Winning rider Danny Mullins commented afterwards: “He was entitled to do that and you can see from looking at him there is a bit more to come from him. He made a few novicey mistakes but his class got him through today.
“He should be a nice staying novice chaser for the season.”
Betfair offer 20/1 about the winner (from 25/1) for the RSA Chase at Cheltenham in March 2020.
Additional reporting by Alan Magee
