Owner and race sponsor Douglas Taylor claimed a popular win in the MCR Hurdle at Leopardstown today when his homebred Final Approach led home a Willie Mullins trained 1-2.

Final Approach, under rising star and Jockeys’ Championship contender Paul Townend, tracked the leaders before making good headway to lead entering the straight, eventually staying on well for a two lengths win over stablemate Call The Police

Afterwards Mullins stated “we aimed Final Approach at this race all year and while Paul probably arrived a bit soon, he got all the breaks in the race. Emmet (Mullins, rider of Call The Police) gave his horse a great ride too on just the horse’s third run over hurdles.”

He added “Final Approach had a few indifferent runs and we were very disappointed with him at Down Royal but I thought things were falling in his favour the way he had been coming on at home recently - today was probably his Derby though.”

Owner Douglas Taylor, CEO of MCR Recruitment and responsible for the famous D Four Dave coup at Kilbeggan during the summer, added “I bred Final Approach myself and hoped to sell him originally but got stuck with him! His previous trainer Kevin Prendergast said there was a big ‘pot’ to be won with him and his dam, College Fund Girl, is currently in-foal to Yeats.”

Tom Weekes