‘He’s a two-miler who attacks – the engine is definitely there’ – Supreme scorer Kopek Des Bordes electric on chasing debut

Kopek Des Bordes was second up on the stage in the Arkle auditions on Monday, over an hour after Lulamba had strutted his stuff at Exeter, and he impressed just about every judge in the place with a stylish winning debut over fences in the 2m1f beginners’ chase. 

Douvan and Vautour both won the same race on their chasing bow and it looks like last season’s Supreme scorer Kopek Des Bordes is going to every bit as good over fences as he was over hurdles on the evidence of his explosive 13-length victory over Lovely Hurling, which promoted him to 7-4 favourite (from 5-2) with Paddy Power for the 2026 Arkle. 

Coral were less impressed and initially left Kopes Des Bordes as 5-2 favourite alongside Lulamba, but that was soon snapped up and he is into 9-4 outright market leader with that firm.

Willie Mullins said of Kopek Des Bordes: “We brought him away to the Curragh last week to pop five or six fences and afterwards myself and Paul just said to ourselves ‘Wow, we’ll never do that again with him!’ He was electric.

“When he sees a fence, he just wants to go and jump it. He’s very keen in that respect. As he goes up in grade, the pace will get faster and hotter. I think it will be all to his benefit.”

Comparing Kopek Des Bordes and Sunday’s runaway winner Final Demand, Mullins said: “This chap was a bumper horse compared to a point-to-pointer, which Final Demand was. Final Demand would have done a lot more schooling in his younger days, whereas this fellow has been schooling mainly over hurdles and a bit over fences.”

As for the next port of call for Kopek Des Bordes, that is likely to be the reinstated Racing Post Novice Chase at Leopardstown’s Christmas festival over 2m1f. 

“Leopardstown over Christmas would look like plan A for him at the moment,” Mullins said. 

Paul Townend, who had the pleasure of partnering both Final Demand and Kopek Des Bordes, said: “I was very impressed with that. I didn’t think he did a whole lot wrong. He had respect for his fences, but he wanted to attack them without doing anything stupid. He figured out plenty and learnt a lot today, but when I let him on down the home straight that was the most taking part.”

The winning jockey said Kopek Des Bordes and Final Demand were entirely different specimens.

He said: “You’d have to rein yourself in on him and he takes a little bit more minding, as he’s different to Final Demand. He’s a two-miler who attacks and the engine is definitely there.”

You can say that again, Paul. The engine is absolutely enormous and the Arkle could be an absolute corker if Kopek Des Bordes and Lulamba stay fit and healthy over the next few months. 

Read this next . . .

‘He has edged round one of the proxy bout’ – Keith Melrose weighs up the two big chasing debuts on Monday 

‘From the way he jumps he could go further’ – Lulamba cut to 3-1 for the Arkle after winning debut over fences 

‘I think he’s more than good enough to go down the Champion Hurdle route’ – Willie Mullins’ exclusive horse-by-horse guide to his all-star team 

Sign up to receive On The Nose, our essential daily newsletter, from the Racing Post. Your unmissable morning feed, direct to your email inbox every morning.