The Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National are two of the potential big-race targets for Coral Gold Cup runner-up Mahler Mission, trainer John McConnell confirms.
The highly progressive seven-year-old came into the prestigious Coral Gold Cup as a fancied 15/2-shot and ran a superb race under Ben Harvey to finish second to Datsalrightgino despite losing both of his front shoes.
Although the Grade 2-winning gelding didn’t win Newbury’s £250,000 feature contest, McConnell remains upbeat about how far he can climb up the ranks.
“I said that if he won this, he would go straight to the Gold Cup, and I was dead serious about it because if he won, he would have been rated 160,” the County Meath-based trainer said. “He didn’t win it, so I don’t know now.
“He is in the Paddy Power [Steeplechase] at Leopardstown (December 27), and he has the class to run in these Graded races. He’s filling out more and more each year, so we’ll sit down and talk with the lads to pick something.
“We’re going to have to look at the Grand National. It’s such a huge race, so do you just tee him up for one big day and then maybe fall at the first? But with these good horses, you have to do that because they don’t run that often.
“I might come back for a Cotswold Chase (January 27) to test the water. If he is now a 155-rated horse, it’ll be hard in handicaps with him.”
As McConnell explained to Racing TV after the Coral Gold Cup, due to his flat front feet, Mahler Mission has to have “special shoes fitted” so losing them during the race wouldn’t have helped his chances.
Furthermore, it’s been 52 days since McConnell landed a winner in the National Hunt sphere, so the performance can be upgraded due to a lack of yard form.
“Some of the horses seem to have had a little bug, others seem to have scoped clean - and their bloods have also come back clean - and some of the Flat horses are just not that good,” continued McConnell.
“We had a winner in Dundalk yesterday, but I think that was the biggest gap we’ve had without a winner in a good six or seven years.
“Even with him, we didn’t have a 100 per cent clear run as there was a few physical niggles, so maybe we were 98% ready for it rather than 100%. However, he’s still run a cracker.”
As for McConnell, a Coral Gold Cup runners-up medal is another accolade to add to the rapidly increasing tally having trained his first Cheltenham Festival winner last season with Seddon’s success in the Magners Plate Handicap Chase.
With a horse like Mahler Mission in his yard, things can only continue to progress for Rockview Stables, as he said: “This race was one of the big ones in my childhood and although I hate finishing second, to come second in this is unbelievable.
“This was such a gigantic pot – I think it was worth roughly £50,000 for the second and £145,000 for the winner – that other good handicaps are nowhere near that level of prize money.
“He’s unbelievable and he is still young, so there could be more to come with him.”
