With the Cheltenham Festival only a week away, while it could hardly be said that Willie Mullins’ horses are in bad form, the residents of the mighty Closutton yard certainly have had more costly reversals than unusual this season with Mikael D’Haguenet and Zaidpour both suffering double unexpected defeats and others like Flat Out and Quiscover Fontaine will miss the rest of the season through injuries.

And over the course of the penultimate weekend’s action before the most important week in National Hunt Racing, weekend the Champion Trainer saw something of a worrying trend continue as more of his hotly fancied inmates – Sicilian Secret and Cottrelsbooley and Quadrillon and Vapiano – suffered unexpected defeats.

That said, there can be no doubting Willie’s class at what he does or the quality of horses he has at his disposal. In different times, Gordon Elliot and Noel Meade would be engaged in quite a battle for the Trainer’s Championship with 58 and 47 winners respectively. Such is the depth of equine talent the Co Carlow handler has at his disposal, he is already 28 wins in front of Elliot and there is a further gap of nine back to the former kingpin from Castletown.

It is for that reason that the Mullins horses will, as is the norm nowadays, carry most of the Irish hopes going into the Cheltenham Festival next week. As usual, he will be mob handed in the Festival Bumper and my sources indicate that Allure of Illusion could be the pick of those travelling.

He is also bound to be well represented in the Novice races with horses like So Young, Zaidpour, Day Of A Lifetime, Quell Esprit and Mikael D’Haguenet all going with live chances should they line up for battle. The latter could be something of a forgotten horse having had a few disappointing runs this term but he can’t have become a bad horse over night and if a reunion with Ruby Walsh could re-ignite some of his old spark once again, the French bred could yet turn out to be the darling of the punters. All that remains now is to see what race Willie deploys him in.

And then, of course, there’s Kempes. Purchased by JP McManus halfway through last season, like Mouse Morris’ China Rock, he is another that has progressed somewhat under the radar but the former’s effortless win in the Irish Hennessy Gold Cup – albeit in the absence of Pandorama – thrusts him right into the Gold Cup picture.

China Rock finished a very respectable third in the ever competitive Jewson Novices Chase at the Festival last March. He occupied the same berth behind Kempes at Leopardstown recently and, allied to his form behind Kauto Star and Sizing Europe earlier in the season, that form leaves him fully entitled to take his chance on March 18th.

Dunguib is another who could be something of a forgotten horse in terms of the Champion Hurdle. On reflection, finishing third in any race at the Cheltenham Festival is never bad going. Such was the hype that surrounded his appearance in the Supreme Novices Hurdle last March that when he didn’t win it was seen as a disaster. It may not actually have been that bad at all because the winner, Menorah, his proven himself to be a top performer since.

Elsewhere, Noel Meade may not have the numbers in training he once had but he is still one of the top trainers in the business and still has some top class animals in his care. None more so than Pandorama. The Flemensfirth gelding is very much ground dependent but if the conditions were to fall in his favour – in other words if ‘Soft’ or worse is in the description – he stands every chance of landing the greatest prize of all for Trainer, Jockey and Owner and a lot of other people besides!

To sum up though, the following would be The Guvnor's advised bets for the forthcoming Cheltenham Festival:
Lucky 15 with:
Garde Champetre (Tuesday)
Spirit Son (Tuesday)
Allure Of Illusion (Wednesday)
Unaccompanied (Friday)

€5 e/w Dunguib (Tuesday)
€10 e/w Pandorama and Peak Raider (Friday)
If you liked this article, tell other people about it...


The Guvnor...