Willie ready to make an early Statement
WILLIE MULLINS loves getting a winner on the board on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival and State Man looks almost guaranteed to provide him with one in the Champion Hurdle.
Gordon Elliott and Robcour have decided to go here with Irish Point, who is an opponent that State Man hasn’t met before, but I think the favourite is a bigger, stronger, better horse this year and I know Paul Townend feels that he didn’t turn up in Cheltenham for some reason last year when second to Constitution Hill.
He is expected to go off a very short price, but I do believe he will be very hard to beat in the day one feature. Irish Point will definitely give him a race but, for me, State Man is the first guaranteed winner of the meeting for Willie Mullins, who has numerous chances in the earlier races on the card.
The Supreme is very competitive with Ballyburn going for the Gallagher’s tomorrow and you could make a case for three or four of them.
I really like Slade Steel in Henry de Bromhead’s. He ran a nice race at the Dublin Racing Festival when second to Ballyburn and thankfully there’s no Ballyburn here.
Tullyhill will be tough opposition, but Slade Steel jumps well, travels well, is battle hardened and hopefully he can come home in front.
Gaelic Warrior looks set to go off favourite in the Arkle, but there are a lot of question marks over him going left-handed as he’s never been as good going left-handed as he is going right-handed and that was proven in his race against Fact To File at the Dublin Racing Festival.
Quilixios has a solid each-way chance in the race and I’d be very disappointed if he didn’t finish in the first three, but it could be an English-trained horse that wins in JPR One, who was very unlucky in a trial for this race here in November when unseating Brendan Powell at the last and I think he could give the Irish plenty to do.
And after being recently purchased by JP Mcmanus, Meetingofthewaters could be the one in the Ultima. He was a very good winner of the
Paddy Power Chase at Leopardstown over Christmas and he is hard to oppose here.
After the Champion Hurdle, Lossiemouth could provide the Mullins team with another Grade 1 in the
Mares’ Hurdle. The only concern for her at such a short price is that it’s her first time over two and a half miles, but I don’t see that being a problem for her and she will be very hard to beat.
Henry runs three nice mares in the race in Lantry Lady, Hispanic Moon and Telmesomethinggirl (below) and I would give the latter of those a good each-way chance under Rachael Blackmore.
In the Boodles, Lark In The Mornin looks like he’s been laid out for this race by Joseph O’brien and he could be a step ahead of the handicapper.
And in the last, I think Embassy Gardens could give Patrick Mullins victory in the National Hunt Chase, which he would absolutely love to win this year, with the race being run in memory of his late grandmother Maureen.
The Mullins family have a strong hand in the race, with Corbett’s Cross also running for Emmet, but I do fancy Embassy Gardens over Derek O’connor’s mount.