Al Boum Photo will once again try to ring the new racing year in with a flourish at Tramore on Saturday.
Previous run of the mill expectations for most New Year’s Day fare have been well and truly scotched in recent seasons by Al Boum Photo, who bids for a fourth successive victory in the Grade Three Savills Chase.
In both 2019 and 2020 the Tramore contest proved a prelude to Cheltenham Gold Cup glory a dozen weeks later.
In 2021 Al Boum Photo won around the Co Waterford course again before finishing third in steeplechasing’s ‘Blue Riband’.
Willie Mullins’s ambitions to keep him busier this season have been foiled by quick ground up to now but once again Tramore is able to supply reliably testing conditions.
Al Boum Photo is joined by four stable companions as well as Gordon Elliott’s Hardline in the line-up.
Given the wide-open nature of the Gold Cup betting any expectations that Al Boum Photo’s best days may be behind him might have to be reassessed if he wins impressively again.
The New Year’s Day star appeal isn’t confined to Al Boum Photo, however, with another Cheltenham champion lining up at Fairyhouse.
The two mile Champion Chase heroine Put The Kettle On is set to stretch her stamina to its furthest yet in the Grade Three mares’ chase.
With usual partner Aidan Coleman in action at Cheltenham, Rachael Blackmore rides for the first time in over two years.
The formbook testifies to how Put The Kettle On is best around Cheltenham and the right-handed and largely flat Fairyhouse is a very different proposition.
She also faces a major test on ratings in an ultra-competitive heat featuring both the Kim Muir winner, Mount Ida, and Elimay in a five-runner field.
Elimay was a major odds-on disappointment in her last start at Aintree but at her best these circumstances look like they will play more to her strengths than anyone else’s.
The Mullins team has 15 runners spread around the New Year’s Day action, including Stormy Ireland who lines up in Cheltenham’s Grade Two Relkeel Hurdle.
Fresh from his superb spin on Tornado Flyer in the King George on St Stephen's Day, Danny Mullins travels cross-channel again.
Stormy Ireland dropped away tamely after leading the Hatton’s Grace field at Fairyhouse last time and will have to bounce back to her best if she is to win for the first time at Cheltenham.
The best of Stormy Ireland’s four previous races at the track was when runner-up to Roksanna in the mares’ hurdle at the 2019 festival.
With Paul Townend on duty at Tramore, rising star Seán O'Keeffe has an enviable book of rides at Fairyhouse.
He opens with two more Mullins-trained French recruits in both maiden hurdles, while O’Keeffe teams up with an interesting Beginners’ Chase contender in Jungle Boogie.
Mullins also runs the JP McManus-owned Shadow River in this and Mark Walsh will be on board a horse that won a maiden hurdle this time last year before subsequently running third in a Grade Three over flights.
That’s more than Jungle Boogie has accomplished to date, albeit the latter could hardly do more than win his two career starts.
The bumper winner subsequently won a maiden hurdle in easy style and has always looked a likely chaser in the making.
O'Keeffe is on Wee Small Hour in one of the handicap hurdles but an interesting contender in this could be the course winner Daphne Moon on her return to action in first-time cheek pieces and over three miles.
