The two-mile red mills trial hurdle takes place at Gowran park this Saturday.
Down through the years has become a very important preparation race for the following month’s Cheltenham festival.
Hardy Eustace took in this graded race en-route to his two champion hurdle successes in 2004 and 2005 and his jockey Conor O’Dwyer explained how the race played a key role in Hardy Eustace’s subsequent success:
“He was really never going to go chasing, he wasn’t the biggest and as you know the way he jumped hurdles wouldn’t have really suited fences so he was going to stay champion hurdler for as long as he could which he did and to go back the second year and do what he done was just absolutely amazing” said Conor.
“The red mills hurdle set him up for it and I think even the first year that we were beaten by a short head, Dessie knew that it was his prep because he definately wasn’t disappointed that he was beaten by a short head, he was very happy” he added.
Watch Dave Keena’s interview with Conor O’Dwyer below.
