RACING:WILLIE MULLINS is attacking Sunday's Bar One Racing Hatton's Grace Hurdle with near Aidan O'Brien-like strength and has four of the seven possible starters in the "Premier Jumping Weekend" feature at Fairyhouse.
Just seven horses have been left in the two-and-a-half-mile centrepiece to Sunday’s triple-Grade One fixture which has attracted a total of just 22 entries in all for the three top-flight contests after yesterday’s forfeit stage.
If the champion jumps trainer resembles his flat counterpart in terms of the Hatton’s Grace there is also more than a hint of Coolmore to the Gigginstown dominance of the Drinmore Chase entry for Sunday.
Michael O’Leary’s hugely successful team have five of the eight horses in the top novice event including the Florida Pearl Chase winner Last Instalment and last season’s Cheltenham Festival hero First Lieutenant.
Paul Nolan presents the bulk of Gigginstown’s likely opposition with the pair of Shinrock Paddy and last year’s Drinmore runner-up Alpha Ridge while the colourful Co Monaghan trainer Oliver Brady has left in Imperial Shabra.
Just seven remain in the Royal Bond Novice Hurdle with Willie Mullins represented by Sous Les Cieux and Midnight Game and Noel Meade also doubly represented by Dylan Ross and the ex-Italian Il Fenomeno.
However, the primary focus of Sunday’s attention will be on the Hatton’s Grace. Willie Mullins doesn’t have the champion Hurricane Fly to go to war with this year but he has a rare strength in depth with the French Champion Hurdle winner Thousand Stars joined by a trio of stable companions, Mourad, Final Approach and Mikael D’Haguenet.
They present Ruby Walsh with a fine opportunity to fill a rare Grade One gap in his career CV but the race could also boast a strong female presence. Last year’s Hatton’s Grace-third Voler La Vedette and Dermot Weld’s four-year-old Unaccompanied, have also been left in the race along with Edward O’Grady’s The Real Article.
Nevertheless, some bookmaker reaction yesterday was to install Thousand Stars as an even-money favourite to follow up his Morgiana victory at Punchestown, and to make the leading stayer Mourad as his main threat.
“Thousand Stars has come out of Punchestown well and all four are possibles. We will decide later in the week,” Mullins said yesterday. “It’s a Grade One race so it looks an obvious target.”
As well as Unaccompanied in the Hatton’s Grace, Dermot Weld also has an opportunity to win one of the three Grade One prizes for the first time when Galileo’s Choice lines up for the Royal Bond. The Group Three winner on the flat has been installed a 7 to 1 chance by Powers who rate the Mullins hope Sous Les Cieux as their 13 to 8 favourite.
On Sunday Fairyhouse also stages the Grade Three Juvenile Hurdle in which Edward O’Grady has left in the ex-John Oxx-trained Tugboat. The son of Galileo ran just twice on the flat, winning on the second occasion in a Navan maiden at the start of October.
The going at Fairyhouse remains soft.
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