Ireland’s most powerful stables were frustrated on both sides of the Irish Sea on Saturday. The postponement of the first day of the Dublin racing festival at Leopardstown was followed by a victory for Fergal O’Brien’s Sixmilebridge in the Grade One Scilly Isles Novice Chase at Sandown.
Willie Mullins’s Kitzbuhel set off as the 10-11 favourite for Sandown’s four-runner feature event, with Gordon Elliott’s Kala Conti next in the list at 2-1, but the market leader got no further than the sixth fence, where a bad mistake unseated Paul Townend, his rider. Sixmilebridge, at 6-1, was far more fluent at his fences and having made all the running, Kielan Woods’s mount stayed on well from the last to beat Kala Conti by five lengths.
