BELL TOLLS FOR WILLIE
Market leader can end long wait for Mullins
CLASSY Bellshill must be strongly fancied to give Willie Mullins a first victory in the €500,000 Boylesports Irish Grand National in Fairyhouse.
The traditional Easter Monday showpiece has eluded both the champion trainer and his arch-rival Gordon Elliott.
And the destination of today’s €270,000 winner’s prize could not only end a long wait for one of our leading trainers, but also have a major impact on the battle for the Trainers Championship.
Elliott is responsible for 13 of the 30 runners today while Mullins will saddle four, including marketleaders Bellshill and Pairofbrowneyes, both penalised for recent wins.
Bellshill, lightly-raced over fences and boasting a record of three wins from five starts in the discipline, makes most appeal.
Trained for a spring campaign with either today’s race or Aintree as his prime target, Bellshill made his belated seasonal debut when beating A Genie In Abottle and Val De Ferbet in the Bobbyjo on this track in February.
That was his first start since finishing a creditable third behind Might Bite in the RSA at Cheltenham last year, an effort which followed a fall in the Grade 1 Flogas, won by Disko, at Leopardstown.
His earlier form includes a defeat of this year’s Ryanair winner Balko Des Flos on his fencing bow and victory in a Grade 2 novice at Limerick.
David Mullins, who partnered Bellshill in the Bobbyjo, will be re-united with him today. And even the 8lb penalty given to him by the handicapper for that lasttime-out success, mightn’t prevent the eight-year-old bagging the spoils.
He has never tackled a trip as demanding as this (three miles and five), but travels well and saw out the trip three miles and one well in the Bobbyjo.
The Mullins-trained Pairofbrowneyes - penalised 9lb for his win in the Leinster National in Gowran Park last month – on his stable debut, is open to more improvement and, like the selection – if he sees out this extreme distance, in testing ground – should be involved.
Gordon Elliott’s battalion will be spear-headed by novice Monbeg Notorious, winner of the Thyestes off 137 before landing a Grade 2 at Navan and Folsom Blue, which beat another of the Mullins runners Isleofhopendreams in Punchestown’s Grand National Trial and was handed a 9lb hike for his troubles.
The Elliott team also includes Bless The Wings – runner-up for the last two years and a faller in the cross-country at Cheltenham last time – and Squouateur, third in the Kim Muir at Cheltenham. Pat Kelly’s Mall Dini, the mount today of Mark Walsh, was second in the Kim Muir.
Davy Russell’s mount Dounikos, pulled up in the RSA at Cheltenham (behind Presenting Percy), having earlier finished a creditable fourth to Monalee in the Flogas at Leopardstown.
Others to consider include Noel Meade’s novice Snow Falcon, and the Tom Mullins-trained Oscar Knight, runner-up the wellhandicapped Total Recall, over hurdles, at Leopardstown
last time.