Mullins plotting repeat Trophy raid
Cabaret Queen thriving ahead of Newbury race Buveur D’air to attempt Fighting Fifth hat-trick
Willie Mullins is hoping lightning will strike twice at Newbury this Saturday when he saddles Cabaret Queen in the Ladbrokes Trophy.
Two years ago Mullins won the Ladbrokes Trophy with Total Recall who had won the Munster National on his previous outing and Cabaret Queen put herself on course to repeat the feat when she made all to win the same race at Limerick, impressively by 13 lengths, seven weeks ago.
It was only the seven-year-old mare’s second start since she was bought out of Dan Skelton’s stable for £13,000 at the sales, and Mullins reports she has thrived since her arrival at his Closutton yard in the spring, saying: “When mares start to come into form, maybe just a change of stable can bring about an improvement for whatever reason. It freshens them up.”
Mullins has also left Yorkhill in among 26 horses standing their ground at the five-day confirmation stage for Saturday’s big race and the nine-year-old is an intended runner at this stage.
The sponsors have the Nicky Henderson-trained Ok Corral as their 6-1 favourite, with Cabaret Queen next best on 7-1.
Clerk of the course Keith Ottesen expects the ground to be no worse than soft and said yesterday: “We are currently good to soft. There was a couple of millimetres of light, drizzly rain today – and it will be similar tomorrow. Then there is a band of showers, potentially heavy, coming. That should get us to soft ground by the middle of the week.”
Henderson’s Buveur D’air will face a maximum of six rivals when he attempts a third consecutive victory in the Betfair Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle the same day.
The dual Champion Hurdler has made a successful start to his season in the Gosforth Park Grade One contest in each of the past two seasons and is sure to be a warm order to complete the hat-trick on Saturday.
Should the JP Mcmanus-owned eight-year-old complete his hattrick, he will be in pretty illustrious company as only the third threetime winner of the Fighting Fifth after Comedy Of Errors (1972, 1973 and 1974) and Birds Nest (1976, 1977 and 1979).