Easy does it for Willie

MULLINS EXPECTS A VERY GOOD GAME

THE classy Easy Game can help champion trainer Willie Mullins to an opening day treble as the Listowel Harvest Festival gets underway this afternoon.

At his best Easy Game is a solid and reliable graded class performer and he looks to have been found an excellent opportunity in this afternoon’s fiverunner feature.

The eight-year-old could only manage 10th in the Galway Plate last time but he should find this test much more to his liking.

The small field will play to his strengths and he has winning course form having landed this race last year as well as winning here in June.

All this points to him taking plenty of beating and it is noteworthy that Paul Townend rides him over stablemate Kemboy.

That one is an absolutely fascinating runner having spent the last number of seasons taking on some of the best chasers on either side of the Irish Sea.

Kemboy (inset) is without a win since the 2021 Irish Gold Cup but he still showed flashes of his old class last term. Indeed he was beaten less than a length by Galvin in the Grade 1 Savills Chase at Leopardstown last Christmas. If he runs up to that level he will give Easy Game plenty to think about but a longer trip would probably suit better. Another Mullins-trained winner could come in the shape of What Path who takes his chance in a three-mile maiden hurdle. This gelding steadily got the hang of things in bumpers and landed a Galway Festival bumper when he was last seen in action. Polo Lounge can complete the Mullins treble in the bumper as he looks to build on some reasonable efforts in defeat. Shannon Glory looks a mare on the up and she gets the vote to land the mares conditions hurdle where she might have most to fear from Nikini. Royal Eagle won a useful event at Galway on her last outing over hurdles and is hard to look past in the mares maiden hurdle. And the useful flat horse Common Practice might be good enough for the opening juvenile hurdle.