O’Brien plotting Festival route for Dysart Enos

Fergal O’Brien’s Dysart Enos is likely to be seen once more before taking aim at a Cheltenham return for the Festival in March.

Last season the mare made her mark when winning three bumpers in good style, including a defeat of the useful Queens Gamble at Market Rasen and then a wide-margin success in a Grade Two event at the Grand National meeting.

Her hurdling career has been equally successful so far, with the five-year-old taking her debut over obstacles by seven and a half lengths at Huntingdon in November.

She then lined up at Cheltenham on Friday in what has historically been a good race, previously won by the likes of Datsalrightgino, Chantry House and Elixir De Nutz.

Under Paddy Brennan she was the 5-6 favourite and cantered home a comfortable victor, with the runner-up beaten two and three-quarter lengths and the third over 13 lengths away.

A return to Cheltenham for the showpiece meeting is the ultimate aim, with O’Brien hoping to find another suitable outing for the mare before then.

“She’s very well and we’re really pleased with her. She did it well at Cheltenham, I’m not much into timing but people say she did it very fast,” he said.

“You need a fast one and her last furlongs were fairly fast, so fingers crossed that bodes well.

“You couldn’t fault her, she did everything we wanted her to do and took the whole thing in really well.

“Cheltenham is different to anywhere else, I know it’s not March and there’ll be twice as many people there, or three times as many, but it’s still great to get her there.

“When, hopefully, she goes back there in March, she’ll be in familiar surroundings having been there before.

“There was plenty of depth in there, it was a nice race to go for and it ticked a lot of boxes for us.”

O’Brien will now scour the calendar for the mare’s next outing, with early February considered the ideal time for her final run before the highlight of the National Hunt season.

“The obvious one is Doncaster in January, but Paddy (Brennan) feels that might be too soon, we’d probably be happier with the first week in February,” he said.

“It’s just trying to find somewhere where she hasn’t got a load of weight, we’ll give it a go and try to find something.”

Whilst Dysart Enos made a success of the meeting, the O’Brien team did suffer some disappointment when Bonttay unseated Brennan in the Virgin Bet Every Saturday Money Back Mares’ Handicap Hurdle.

The mare has been incredibly consistent for connections having never finished out of the top two coming into the race, and on the turn for home she looked poised to add to her record as she approached the penultimate hurdle on the bridle.

A third Cheltenham success was not to be, however, as the six-year-old misjudged the obstacle and pecked heavily on landing before parting ways with her rider.

Thankfully both horse and rider were unharmed and O’Brien hopes to find another day for the mare to shine.

“It was a long way out so it’s a bit difficult to know whether she’d have won or not, but she’s come out of it fine,” he said.

“She had a little scratch on her hind leg but other than that she’s OK, she’ll be fine for another day.”