UK Horse Racing Tips

A brief glance at the ante-post list for the Cheltenham Festival 2015 very quickly reveals that at this relatively early stage of the season Irish champion trainer Willie Mullins has an embarrassment of riches in most departments and once again appears the man they all have to beat at jump racing’s premier fixture of the year, writes Elliot Slater.

Mullins, who sent out a record seven winners at the meeting back in 2012, was once again the top dog at last year’s ‘greatest show on turf’ where he began by saddling the exciting Vautour to win the opening race of the fixture, the Grade 1 Supreme Novices Hurdle. Plans for the exciting five-year-old for this term have yet to be finalised and no decision appears yet to have been taken as to whether the Susanna Ricci-owned gelding will stay over hurdles and bid for the Champion Hurdle, or switch to the larger obstacles and work towards a shot at the two-mile Arkle Trophy, the first-season novice chasers championship at that distance.

Long-time stable star Quevega will not grace the Cheltenham Festival 2015 having been retired after her defeat at Punchestown in May. That surprise loss came after the outstanding mare had landed a remarkable sixth successive OLBG (David Nicholson) Mares’ Hurdle, a record that may never be equalled in the history of the sport, never mind surpassed. Mullins does however appear to have a ready-made replacement for Quevega in the shape of the terrific mare Annie Power, (also owned by Ricci), a hot favourite in the ante-post market to continue the Mullins stranglehold on the mares’ hurdle.

The winner of 11 of her 12 career starts, Annie Power’s only defeat came at Cheltenham in March when she stepped up to three miles for the very first time and ran her heart out in finishing a brave second to the unbeaten More of That in the Grade 1 Ladbrokes World Hurdle. She remains a possible to try and go one better in the third day feature event, but Mullins also has potential candidates for this race in the shape of the undefeated Un De Sceaux, winner of two graded races in France during the spring and also a leading fancy for the two-mile Arkle Chase, and the exciting Briar Hill, whose only career defeat came at Cheltenham in March when favourite for the Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle.

The Andrea and Graham Wylie-owned son of Shantou was travelling comfortably in midfield when falling at the seventh flight in the race eventually won by Very Wood, but is understood to be back in training and shaping well ahead of his first run of the new term. Like a number of his top stable companions, Briar Hill also has the option to switch to fences and is prominent in the betting markets for the Grade 1 RSA Chase over three miles at the Cheltenham Festival in 2015.

Shaneshill, another tremendously exciting prospect to represent the Wylies, should make his eagerly anticipated hurdling bow before too long and is already amongst the market leaders for the Supreme Novices Hurdle, having proven himself one of the very best bumper horses in the business last campaign. He found only Silver Concorde too good for him at the Cheltenham Festival before gaining his revenge on Dermot Weld’s smart sort in the equivalent event at Punchestown six weeks later.

Together with the high-class Champagne Fever, Black Hercules, and a host of other talented prospects, there is little doubt that once again Willie Mullins is the trainer to look to ahead of what promises to be another amazing four days in March at the Cheltenham Festival 2015.

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