Cheltenham Festival: Kopek des Bordes run into Michael O’Sullivan, supreme new crowns for Willie Mullins | Racing news
Kopek des Bordes did everything he asked him to land on the obstacle of Michael O’Sullivan Supreme Novaks in Cheltenham.
For the first time, he was engaged in a hood, Gelding Willie Mullins fought to keep his undefeated record and started as 4-6 favorites under Paul Townend for the 2025-year-old festival.
He duly delivered, accompanying his longtime WorkaHead leader, and then dropped the hill to withstand the challenge from William Munny, despite the leap error on the last obstacle.
The length and three -quarters of the runners launched a huge race in defeat, so they almost wore colors that the late Michael O’Sullivan had famously performed when Navy Nationale coached Barry Connell in the matching event 2023.
Kopek des Bordes is owned by Charlie McCarthy, along with his four sons via Monabeg Investments LTD, and it was a special victory for him after a cancer surgery just 11 days ago.
McCarthy said, “I had a right kidney cancer and I removed the kidney. I had top people to look after me, I am without illness and I will make a hell of fun.
“I don’t want to cry, but I can tell you one thing, I’m nine in the cloud. Is there a bigger cloud?
“I just can’t get over it, be here with my sons and win an obstacle of supreme novices after all I went through. This is a dream come true, and the dream is not over yet.
“These are national hunting races, a little man can say in that and I’m not a little man, but I’m a little man here. National Hunting Races is what I love.”
McCarthy dedicated his victory to O’sullivan, who died last month at the age of 24 due to injuries sustained in the fall in Thurles.
He added, “It’s unreal. It’s a wonderful day for me because the race was named after Michael O’Sullivan, he lived about 20 kilometers from me, and I will donate it to the O’Sullivan family because he was a wonderful jockey.
“I met his brother before and I said,” I would love to beat him for the O’sullivan family. “
Mullins said, “Coming to the last Paul, he just said he was looking at the stands, looking at the last and looking everywhere. He said he had just lost the concentration and missed her, but that he picked up and galloped all the way to the hunters.
“I think the faster pace is helping his jumping. He is able to go faster, we didn’t know that before Leopardstown, but today we saw it again.
“It’s nice to get the first on the board, a big relief. Today we have a good team. We hoped to get one and hope for the other. Having a great relief.”
Mullins said, “Coming to the last Paul, he just said he was looking at the stands, looking at the last and looking everywhere. He said he had just lost the concentration and missed her, but that he picked up and galloped all the way to the hunters.
“I think the faster pace is helping his jumping. He is able to go faster, we didn’t know that before Leopardstown, but today we saw it again.
“It’s nice to get the first on the board, a big relief. Today we have a good team. We hoped to get one and hope for the other. Having a great relief.”
On future plans for the winner, he added, “Should we stay over obstacles? I don’t know. I think we’ll do what we’ll do after Aintree and Punchestown finish, look and educate him over the fence and will depend a lot about what Paul thinks.
“And he would be an extremely exciting horse over the fences, it is always easier to keep the horses of the champion, but we always look for the horses of the Golden Cup or is it a champion?”
Townend quickly paid tribute to O’Sullivan: “Michael was a large part of our team and he lived locally, and he was a man of the cork, so he was still in his mind. I guess we can count on happy that we knew him in the short time we did, and he was an incredible young man.”
He said about the winner, “I think he’s a very good horse. He covers the ground so much and I would say that you never know how fast you go to him during the race, he has a huge engine and that was a big appearance.”
