Saturday’s Trials Day was one of the last major cross-channel prep dates before Cheltenham’s festival in March and the focus now switches to Ireland’s equivalent in this weekend’s Dublin Racing Festival (DRF).
Whether the DRF effectively turns out to be a Willie Mullins’s Trials Day remains to be seen as bookmakers anticipate the sport’s most successful figure could once again dominate Leopardstown’s €2 million highlight.
A year ago, Mullins completed an unprecedented clean sweep of the eight Grade One races up for grabs, including an Irish Gold Cup-Champion Hurdle double through Galopin Des Champs and State Man.
He landed nine of the 15 races overall, taking his tally to 47 DRF winners during its seven-year existence. A remarkable 34 of those have been in Grade Ones and he once again looks to have a firm grip on the weekend’s top-flight prizes.
Willie Mullins is 10-1 to again land all eight Grade One races at Dublin Racing Festival
Constitution Hill survives scare at the last in another dominant display at Cheltenham
Aurora Vega continues on the right path at Fairyhouse
Champion Hurdle ‘dark horse’ Anzadam faces just two rivals in Naas contest
He currently has seven favourites according to most ante-post betting lists, while his Sainte Lucie is joint-favourite with Gavin Cromwell’s Hello Neighbour for Saturday’s big Juvenile Hurdle. In many of those races the main threat to the Mullins favourite looks to be a stable companion.
Galopin Des Champs and Fact To File are set to clash again for a third time this season in Saturday’s €250,000 Paddy Power Gold Cup, while the odds-on Lossiemouth will have the hat-trick seeking State Man up against her in the €200,000 Champion Hurdle.
Ballyburn is odds-on for the Ladbrokes Novice Chase, as are both Gaelic Warrior in the Dublin Chase and Majborough in the Arkle. Final Demand is a warm favourite for Saturday’s opener. Kopek Des Bordes and Kaid D’authie dominate betting for the Tattersalls Novice Hurdle.
Paddy Power go 10-1 about Mullins repeating his 2024 clean sweep of all eight Grade One races
If it makes for an intimidating outlook for Mullins’s rivals. Few will watch the DRF action with more interest than Nicky Henderson, who has reported Constitution Hill unscathed from his final flight blunder in an otherwise facile success at Cheltenham on Saturday.
It took the English star to a perfect 10 out of 10 career record and cemented his position at the top of the Champion Hurdle market.
“It will be interesting to watch Leopardstown next weekend. Gordon [Elliott] has told me he’s not going to run the mare [Brighterdaysahead] again before March, so we won’t get any clues about her. But Willie [Mullins] will have a few up his sleeve,” Henderson said on Saturday
“Gordon’s mare looked very good and we know there is Lossiemouth and State Man, so we can’t just drop our guard. Our job now is just to get there and if we can get there in the form he is in today, we will go with big hopes,” he added.
On the back of Jonbon’s successful Clarence House warm-up, and Lulamba’s impressive British debut, Henderson’s impressive festival team has seen him cut to 11-2 to be top trainer at the festival.
One Mullins star that could miss out on Cheltenham is Sunday’s impressive Naas winner Anzadam. He was left at 10-1 by most firms after he justified very short odds with a minimum of fuss in the Grade Three Limestone Lad Hurdle.
“He has a good engine and is climbing up the tree nicely. He could be anything. He’s in the Champion Hurdle, but maybe we should wait for Aintree. That looks appealing and he’s still only five,” Mullins said afterwards.
“Paul [Townend] gave him a squeeze after the last and he quickened away nicely. There was no sign of him stopping. The jump he put in at the third last I thought was extraordinary and showed me that we’ll have no trouble going novice chasing with him when we want.
“We’ll see how far we can go with hurdling and see what his owners would like to do,” he added.
Dundalk’s rescheduled card makes for a busy domestic programme on Monday with jump action at Punchestown too.
The most intriguing contest at the Kildare track looks likely to be a mares’ maiden where the Mullins mare Maughreen returns to action almost a year after an impressive bumper debut that had her trainer declaring everything was on the table for her.
Up against Maughreen is Qatar Racing’s €310,000 purchase Familiar Dreams, a four-time bumper winner for Anthony McCann, who has a first start over jumps for Gordon Elliott.
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