Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
BURNING AMBITION
Buick booked to ride Mullins’ big hope in Cesarewitch
WILLIE MULLINS has booked William Buick to ride Burning Victory in his bid to land a fourth consecutive victory in Saturday’s Cesarewitch at Newmarket.
Burning Victory, the bestbacked runner with Ladbrokes yesterday, is now 12-1 from 16-1.
Mullins, also responsible for the 6-1 market leader M C Muldoon, has 11 entries in the £200,000 marathon handicap.
“The prize money in Newmarket makes it very alluring and what doesn’t get into Newmarket will probably go to the Curragh,” said Mullins. “That’s the way I’d be looking at it. We left in what we could, and I would imagine a lot will depend on the ground.”
Nicky Henderson, Mullins’s sparring partner for championship honours at the Cheltenham Festival, is after a third victory in the event with Buzz, the 8-1 second favourite.
Like Henderson’s past winners, Landing Light
(2003) and Caracciola (2008), Buzz is a smart hurdler. “I’m shocked to see Willie has the favourite,” said Henderson. “This has been the plan for Buzz for a long time.”
Henderson has booked champion jockey Oisin
Murphy to ride the gelding. Despite Murphy leading William Buick (left) by 10 winners in his quest to become champion jockey for the third time, Buick was backed at 11-4 with Ladbrokes to take the title.
Murphy remains the odds-on favourite at 1-4.
Sir Mark Prescott is planning a crack at next year’s Prix de l’arc de Triomphe with Alpinista.
The mare is one of few to have beaten Sunday’s Arc winner Torquator Tasso at Hoppegarten in August.
“The form had looked good before – because after she won, the Arc winner went on and won his Group One,” said Prescott.