Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Won’t rest on Laurels
LAURINA, unbeaten in four starts for Willie Mullins has been installed odds-on favourite for Saturday’s Coral Hurdle in Ascot.
Mullins has won this Grade 2 event, previously run as the Ascot Hurdle, twice, with champion hurdlers Annie Power (2013) and Faugheen (2014).
And Laurina, a four-time winner last season, is currently his shortest-priced contender for the Blue
Riband hurdling event at Cheltenham in March.
Successful at Tramore and Fairyhouse in her initial excursions for Mullins, Laurina bolted-up by 18 lengths, in the Grade 2 Trull House Stud Mares Novice Hurdle and rounded off her novice campaign by landing a Grade 1 mares event at Fairyhouse at Easter.
Rated 152, the French-bred fiveyear-old is one of 11 entries for Saturday’s Ascot feature, which was re-opened on Monday.
But Gordon Elliott, inset, confirmed yesterday Samcro will definitely not run, with Newcastle’s Fighting Fifth on December 1, and a probably clash with reigning champion Buveur D’air and Supreme winner Somerville Boy, remaining his most likely target. Meanwhile, 37 horses stood their ground at yesterday’s forfeit stage for Sunday’s €100,000 Troytown in Navan, 14 of them trained by Elliott, who has won the last four renewals of the race, with Balbriggan, Riverside City, Empire Of Dirt and Mala Beach respectively.
But Pairofbrowneyes, one of three Mullins-trained contenders, is ante-post favourite for the Ladbrokes-sponsored handicap while Spider web and Na Trachtalai Abu, winner and runner-up in last month’s Munster National in Limerick, are set to renew rivalry.