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El Fabiolo confirmed his supremacy at the head of the novice chasing division with an easy victory in the 2m Grade 1 Barberstown Castle Novice Chase.
It was El Fabiolo's third straight Grade One success following wins in the Irish Arkle Novice Chase at Leopardstown and the Arkle Challenge Trophy Novice Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.
Trainer Willie Mullins dominated the entries for the contest with three of the four runners. Dysart Dynamo seemed unscathed after a dramatic last-fence fall at the Cheltenham Festival and set the pace with his usual enthusiasm. Despite some awkward jumps over the early fences, El Fabiolo took the lead from two-out and drew clear impressively to score by eleven lengths. Dysart Dynamo stayed on well to take second ahead of the Mouse Morris-trained Indiana Jones.
El Fabiolo remains unbeaten over fences and looks an exciting prospect for the 2m division next season. He has been shorted to favouritism with some bookmakers for the 2024 Champion Chase.
The victory marked a new domestic prize-money record for Willie Mullins with over 6.6 million euros achieved this season. He said, "He looks a two-miler all over, but we'll see. I'd have no problem going two and a half as he's nice and relaxed. He's improving all the time and it's always nice having those two-mile chasers and it's good to have something coming behind Energumene.
Over the first couple of fences he was a bit rusty for whatever reason, but hopefully as he races more, Paul might get more confidence into him, but he's doing nothing too wrong at the moment."