Parmenion and Paul Townend© Photo Healy Racing
Today's easy Leopardstown maiden hurdle winner Parmenion features amongst Willie Mullins' 160 Cheltenham entrants but will skip next month's festival in favour of later spring targets.
The race was run in memory of the late Michael Rafferty, whose much loved Anaglog's Daughter racing Twitter account attracted thousands of followers, with Parmenion justifying 2/7 favouritism in a rout of six rivals.
The Joe Donnelly-owned Supreme Novices Hurdle-entrant had twice previously been beaten at odds-on and Mullins reported “Paul (Townend, winning jockey) said he was probably just getting fit - he always looked big and I even thought he looked big in the parade ring today.
“He's probably just coming right and while it's the wrong end of the season to be coming right, at least he's won and he won well.
“It's probably too late to go to Cheltenham now and we'll keep him for Fairyhouse and Punchestown, or Liverpool. We'll see how he comes out of that and see what races we have him in before we decide.”
Quotes from Gary Carson
