The Willie Mullins bandwagon rolls 90 miles north up the M5 to Uttoxeter today where Are Ya Right Chief attempts to become the first Irish-trained winner of the Midlands Grand National in eight years.
Ruby Walsh was on board Francis Flood's GVA Ireland who landed the four-mile plus marathon in 2006 but his broken arm, sustained at the festival yesterday, rules him out of a possible repeat on Are Ya Right Chief.
However, Are Ya Right Chief travels on the back of an encouraging effort when third to Folsom Blue in the Punchestown National Trial and Mullins believes an extra half-mile plus could suit his horse who should be perfectly suited to the forecast soft ground and who gets a hefty weight allowance from the topweight Harry Topper.
"Shark" Hanlon came close to a maiden Grade One success when Hidden Cyclone was runner-up in Thursday's Ryanair at Cheltenham and will hope to get some consolation at Kempton today.
Two races designed for horses that were declared to run at the festival but were eliminated include Hanlon's Nearest The Pin who is topweight for the two and a half mile handicap chase at Kempton. Brian Hayes will claim 5lbs off his back.
Skip festival
Kim Bailey, however, is happy he opted to skip the Cheltenham Gold Cup with stable star Harry Topper in favour of the Midlands. The Denman Chase winner has to concede 19lb or more to each of his rivals and will be ridden for the first time by Nick Scholfield as regular partner Jason Maguire was seriously injured at Stratford on Monday.
It is no secret Harry Topper must have soft ground and Uttoxeter still offers him the chance to get his toe in whereas Cheltenham’s drying ground would have proved far too quick, according to Bailey.
“It was an easy decision in the end with the way the ground dried up at Cheltenham,” he said.
“He’s been in good form at home and we are happy to take his chance as long as the ground doesn’t get any quicker than good to soft and it would appear that there is very little chance of that .
“He’s been trained for this week, so switching targets at the last moment won’t affect him as the races are only 24 hours apart. The only real downside to his chance is that we haven’t got Jason, for obvious reasons. Nick’s a good jockey too, though, and I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
David Bridgwater’s faith in Wyck Hill was finally repaid when he won the Eider Chase at Newcastle last month and despite an 8lb rise for the 10-year-old, the trainer is delighted with his racing weight.
“Wyck Hill is on a lovely weight and we’ve got Mark Walsh coming over to ride him,” said Bridgwater.
“He was third on him at Punchestown last season and you can’t be a bad rider if you ride for Mr (JP) McManus, he’s basically number one in Ireland for him.
