Destination ready to make Grade at Naas

SAMCRO may be missing but Next Destination certainly sprinkles some stardust on the Lawlor’s Of Naas Novice Hurdle.

While Gordon Elliott was not 100 per cent happy with Samcro earlier in the week, in Willie Mullins’ Next Destination he would have faced a formidable opponent.

A top-grade performer in bumpers last season, he bolted up on his hurdling debut at Naas and followed up in the Grade Two Navan Novice Hurdle.

As low as 7-1 for the Ballymore Properties Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham in March, Next Destination steps up to Grade One level this weekend for a race Mullins has won five times in the last eight years.

‘Bringing Next Destination back to Naas has been the plan for some time,’ Mullins said. ‘He is a horse that has improved hugely this season.’