IT’S THE PERFECT TIME TO SIT DOWN
Galway winner can land Tramore prize
BY RYAN MCELLIGOTT WILLIE Mullins can end this year’s Tramore Festival in style with the trainer appearing to have excellent prospects of a treble.
Among the horses put forward to strike for the Mullins yard is Katie Tay who make her debut for the trainer in the bumper.
This mare showed ability in two starts for Emmet Mullins in the spring with her first run yielding a creditable fourth at Naas in late March.
She was then pitched into the Goffs Land Rover Bumper at the Punchestown Festival where she finished in midfield.
In the context of this race that Punchestown run isn’t a bad effort and this daughter of Presenting looks one to side with.
Old Bill Barley, who won a Kilbeggan bumper in the spring, can kick off the treble in the opening maiden hurdle.
Since that Kilbeggan success he has come up short in a winner’s bumper at Listowel and he was third on his hurdling debut last month.
That most recent run didn’t come in an especially strong contest but Old Bill Barley should improve for that initial jumping experience.
He is a solid horse with the ability to win a race at this level and he looks a more solid option than Dixie Flyer who was well held in a handicap hurdle at Cork at the start of last week.
The other leg of the Mullins treble is expected to come with Walk On The Moone in the maiden hurdle over just short of two and three quarter miles.
This mare won a Kilbeggan bumper towards the end of last season but she has been costly to follow over hurdles so far.
She has twice been beaten at odds on and was well held on her last start but she is capable of better than she showed there.
Walk On The Moone is tipped in the hope that she can get back to the form that carried her to that debut success.
Elsewhere on the card the Peter Fahey-trained Sit Down Lucy gets the vote in the mares beginners chase.
She delivered on her potential when landing a valuable pot over hurdles at Galway a couple of weeks ago and should make a useful chaser.
It could pay to side with course form for the rest of the day with Pat Coyne making plenty of appeal in the second of the handicap chases.
This consistent eight-year-old often reserves his best for this venue and he won over this course and distance last year.
Mater Matuta is another that tends to run well here and she won at the June meeting on her penultimate start. She looks a solid option in the first of the handicap chases.