Kargese ‘ready’ for Warfield return

Kargese will attract plenty of attention at Ascot on Saturday, as she makes her eagerly-awaited return in the BetMGM Mares’ Hurdle.

Willie Mullins’ five-year-old sets the standard in the Grade Two event judged on her juvenile exploits, winning twice at the highest level and finishing second to Majborough and Sir Gino in the Triumph Hurdle and at Aintree respectively.

She now faces the first examination of her credentials among her elders in a race that is run at two miles for the first time this year, having previously been contested over just short of three miles, and is registered as the Warfield Mares’ Hurdle.

“We can’t wait to see her out again and I had a chat with Patrick (Mullins), who said she did a very nice piece of work on the Curragh earlier this week and the team are really happy with her and she’s ready for this first run,” said Peter Molony, racing manager to owner Kenny Alexander.

“Ascot is a nice place to start her off and hopefully with another year under her belt and a bit more maturity, she will settle a bit better in her races. If she does, I think she will take a lot of beating.

“Both in Cheltenham and Aintree last year, if you watch the races back, she was galloping all over both Majborough and Sir Gino heading to the last in both races. She just ran out of steam having pulled early in both races, so if she is able to learn to settle better, she could be very, very exciting.”

There are six rivals taking aim at Kargese, with Dan Skelton’s Take No Chances a marginal second best on ratings behind the Irish raider, while Jonjo and AJ O’Neill’s All The Glory arrives in Berkshire on a hat-trick.

Another of interest is the Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained Casa No Mento, who gave his team an evening to remember when striking at the Punchestown Festival back in May.

Reverting to hurdles after experimenting over the larger obstacles at Bangor, assistant trainer Willy Twiston-Davies is confident the seven-year-old – who he part owns – can make her presence felt.

He said: “She’s a very, very talented mare and we’ve given her a little break since her last run. She looks back to her best and we’re hopeful of a very good run.

“She jumped brilliantly at Bangor over fences, it was just on awful ground and she didn’t quite get home. There’s very little races for her over fences because she is rated so high, so that’s why we’ve come back to hurdles.

“She’s very talented and I would like to think she will put the last two results behind her. Obviously we have a bit to find with the Mullins horse, but we would be quite keen on our horse being second.”

Also quietly optimistic of getting involved is Dorset handler Ben Clarke, as he sets his improving mare and recent Kempton scorer Ooh Betty the stiffest task of her career.

Clarke said: “She’s been a fantastic mare and when she first came to us she just lacked a lot of confidence – and with racing and time she has just progressed. I think her opening mark was sort of in the 90s and now she is rated 132.

“Her Gold Cup before Christmas was the Gerry Feilden and she won her prep race at Sandown but everything just went wrong in the Gerry Feilden. She got a bad start and got behind and it was just never happening for us, which was really frustrating.

“To bounce straight back to form and win a good race against the boys at Kempton was a good effort and I think two miles with a very dry forecast this weekend at Ascot, the better the ground, the better the chance and she should go there with a chance.

“The Mullins horse, if she takes a step forward from her juvenile form, will be hard to beat, but bar that I fancy we would be best of the others and those this side of the Irish Sea.”

Nicky Henderson’s Pawapuri and Brendas Asking – trained by the Kim Bailey and Mat Nicholls combination – are the others set to face the starter.