Willie Mullins remained tight lipped on Sir Gerhard's Cheltenham plans after a comfortable victory on his chase debut at Gowran Park.
The win wasn't without drama though, as the Mullins trained horse had a near catastrophic error at the third fence. Sir Gerhard, who began the race as the 1/6 favourite, jumped too early, landed in the middle of the fence and was fortunate not to unseat rider Paul Townend.
Understandably, the eight-year-old jumped the next few fences much more hesitantly as Largy Debut set the pace. Sir Gerhard came alive with three fences to jump and reeled Largy Debut in, and when the Henry de Bromhead trained horse made a big mistake at the second to last, Sir Gerhard was on hand to capitalise.
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It was ultimately a deserved win for Sir Gerhard and thoughts immediately turned to Cheltenham plans. Mullins however, was giving nothing away when he spoke to RTE after the win.
"I don't know, you'd have to ask one of these guys," Mullins said with a chuckle.
"I imagine he's going to go there with very little experience - probably just that run. I can't see anything else in the calendar for him. There's a race in Navan but I think it's very close, if anything happened to him it would probably knock him out of Cheltenham."
While a pre-Cheltenham run has been ruled out, Mullins did hint at a couple of possibilities for the festival.
"We'll take a chance and go there (Cheltenham). We'll probably look at the two and a half mile race or the three mile race.
"They'll be going that bit slower.and for an inexperienced horse it will give him a chance to measure his fences.
"Probably not as well represented in the three-mile one. So it may be edging that way.
"But who knows what will happen between now and then."
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