Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
MINIMUM OF FUSS
MULLINS’ STAR TO MAKE SHORT WORK OF RIVALS
POTENTIAL star MIN should make short work of his two rivals on his seasonal debut in today’s Ladbrokes Bet 10 Get 40 On The Grid Chase in Gowran Park.
The Willie Mullins-trained six-year-old, a high-class novice hurdler two seasons back, is unbeaten in two starts over fences and, with a rating of 160, he must be expected to impress as a stepping-stone to bigger and better things as the season develops.
Min won two of his three hurdle starts for the Mullins team, including the Grade 2 Moscow Flyer at Punchestown and bumped into the very smart Altior in the Supreme Novices at Cheltenham on his final hurdling run.
Last season, he was two from two over fences, making all to slam Three Wise Men and Edwulf on his fencing bow at Navan, when scoring impressively by 10 lengths.
And he followed up with another all-the-way success, in the Grade 1 racing Post Novice Chase at Leopardstown over Christmas, when beating Ordinary World and Road To respect, reliable yard-sticks.
A setback prevented Min from bidding for further Grade 1 prizes last spring. But the Walk In The Park gelding remains an exciting two-mile prospect and has been found an ideal launchpad for his season here, against just two rivals, and
FLAXEN FLARE UNCLE DANNY.
And anything other than a smooth, clear-cut victory for Paul Townend’s mount will be a surprise.
In another Mullins/elliott clash, the Townendridden
CARTER MCKAY,
disappointing in
Grade 1 bumpers at Cheltenham and Punchestown after wins at Leopardstown and Naas, gets a marginal vote over
MIN ELLA FOR DOLLARS,
an impressive bumper winner at Navan in March.
Joseph O’brien might have the key to the Join Gowran Park Racing Club Novice Hurdle in the shape of recent Cork winner
SHADY OPERATOR.
Barry Geraghty, inset, oozed confidence on this fellow when he won his maiden in Cork, building on a promising hurdle debut second to Cracking Smart at Punchestown. Shady Operator looks a class-act and is preferred to the well-regarded, Elliott-trained Tipperary winner
ROARING BULL SHARJAH,
and the Mullins hope winner of his maiden over this course and distance.