Janidil by Willie Mullins was the winner of the Grade Two Red Mills Chase at 7/2 under Rachael Blackmore at Gowran Park.
All eyes were on fellow inmate Mullins and 4/6 favorite Haut En Coleurs, with Capodanno also running for the Closutton team as the stable attempted to reshuffle their Ryanair Chase pack after it was revealed that Allaho was at the Cheltenham Festival would stand on the sidelines.
However, after a wide line in a field of four, Janidil returned from a significant absence and put two non-deliveries behind him at the end of last season to go by a length and a quarter ahead of the market leader.
Ahead of Shishkin’s impressive Ascot win, Mullins said: “It was a nice comeback for Janidil and he was more straight than I thought. I think it fits him squarely into the Ryanair picture and he’s a little further along than I thought he was on his homework. It was a nice surprise.
“It’s always nice to win that Red Mills race and we don’t feed anything else!”
He added: “I thought it was slow enough soon enough and Rachael got a good tune out of him over the last three fences.
“I’m also happy with Haut En Couleurs and I don’t know if he’s going to Ryanair or not, but we would have to add him to that. That’s a possible goal, but we’ll see.
“The voyage was too short for Capodanno and I could have waited until next week for the Bobbyjo Chase, but I wanted to get out of the way faster. He’s in the Gold Cup and also in Aintree (Grand National) so we’ll be chatting with connections and thinking about it.
Janidil, second to Allaho at last year’s Ryanair Chase, has an overall 8/1 chance of going one better next month, but after watching Shishkin’s Ascot Chase teardown, Mullins told Racing TV: “Watching Shishkin on TV, it has to be to use him as a (Ryanair) favourite, that was a great achievement.”
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