Mercury Mission

Mercury Mission did well to stay on as well as he did off a sedate pace to take third place behind One Big Boum in the two-and-a-half-mile handicap hurdle at Cork on Sunday. He was held up at the back of the field early on by Tiernan Power Roche and he was keen enough. Still only 16th of the 18 runners as they left the back straight, he moved to the outside early in the home straight, and he stayed on well from the second last flight. He jumped the last well and he ran on strongly all the way to the line to take third place, just three and a half lengths behind the winner, closest at the finish.

It was a race in which the winner set a sedate pace and made just about all the running. Mercury Mission stayed on best of all, he was fastest of all through each of the final two furlongs to record a finishing speed of just over 113% of overall speed. He is not obviously unexposed, he has raced 18 times in total, and 13 times over hurdles, and he hasn't won yet, but this was just his third run for Philip Rothwell, and it was probably up there with the best runs of his life. Third in a novices' hurdle at the 2023 Galway Festival when he was with Michael O'Connor behind subsequent dual Grade 1 winner Mystical Power and Samui, who won the Lartigue Hurdle two runs later, he is still only five and his first win may not be far away. He stays two and a half miles, and he goes well on soft and heavy ground. A 1lb hike from the handicapper takes up to a mark of just 102, 7lb lower than his peak, and that is a mark off which he will be of interest now.

Cork, 8^th December 2024