It’s For Me tops the betting for Cheltenham’s Weatherbys Champion Bumper and might even have been named with Willie Mullins’s outstanding race record in mind.
The most successful figure in Cheltenham history is rated as low as 11-2 with some firms to reach a century of festival winners in a couple of weeks’ time.
A record haul of 10 victories at last year’s meeting brought the Irishman’s overall tally to 78 and within touching distance of the landmark figure of 100.
Even in such a context though, Mullins’s Bumper record stands out with a dozen successes in all.
Since riding Wither Or Which to victory himself in 1996, Mullins has dominated the day two festival finale like no other race through star names such as Florida Pearl (1997) and Champagne Fever in 2012.
It’s For Me, successful on his track debut at Navan, is one of 14 Mullins entries among the 44 left in overall after Tuesday’s acceptance stage.
Other hopefuls include the impressive Dublin Racing Festival winner, Fun Fun Fun, the recent Punchestown scorer Ballyburn, and Chapeau De Soleil for a race their trainer has landed for the last three years.
With a watering policy in place at Cheltenham, and little or no significant rainfall forecast over the coming fortnight, Mullins on Tuesday outlined hopes for his latest crop of emerging stars.
“It’s For Me was very impressive in winning on debut and would look one of the best of ours in the bumper at the moment,” he said in his sportinglife.com column.
“He’s a light-framed horse who would go on good ground and if it came up soft, he has form on that too.”
The only mare among Mullins’s previous winners of the race is Relegate (2018) but Fun Fun Fun could get to take a chance against the males.
Her Grade Two success at Leopardstown left a deep impression on the trainer who said: “She came there off the back of a break and a short preparation, and I fully expected her to blow-up which she did coming out the back stretch.
“But then got her second wind and took off as if she’d just jumped in at the two-furlong pole. She must have a huge engine and it will be interesting to see how she goes. It looked a good race she won last time. She must be top class.”
Other festival pointers outlined by Mullins include Blue Lord’s likely Ryanair Chase target after disappointing at two-miles on his previous run.
“Now it looks like we’ll go down the 2½ mile route and the Ryanair. I know we have Shishkin waiting for us there but, with Allaho out, Blue Lord looks like one of our best representatives.
“I don’t think the trip will be a problem and his best chance of a win at Cheltenham this year is possibly in the Ryanair,” he said.
In other news, Davy Russell has said he will be “fit and ready” for the Cheltenham Festival.
The former triple-champion jockey has had just a pair of rides since a crunching fall at the Dublin Racing Festival but hasn’t ruled out returning to action this weekend.
By then Jack Kennedy should know if he’ll be able to target Cheltenham as he continues his recovery from a broken leg. Kennedy is due to meet his surgeon on Friday.
Russell came out of short-lived retirement to fill in for Kennedy after the latter sustained his injury in January, insisting it was on a temporary basis until his young colleague returned.
“I’ll be fit and ready for Cheltenham – if needed,” Russell said on Tuesday while playing a straight bat to queries about him riding at Cheltenham even if Kennedy is fit.
“Gordon [Elliott] is the boss. He’s going to have to pull the strings on this one,” he said. “We’re all grown [up] people, we’ll sit down and talk about it, and see what we come up with.”
Elliott looks to hold a major hand for Cheltenham’s Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase after 20 were left in the marathon contest on Tuesday. Last year’s winner Delta Work is set to be joined by another proven Grade One winner in Galvin as Elliott bids to equal Enda Bolger’s race record of five victories.
Separately, the first black-type event on the flat in Ireland this year, the Listed Patton Stakes, will take place at Dundalk on Friday evening.
One of the 10 entries in contention to run is Aidan O’Brien’s Cairo, winner of the Killavullan Stakes last autumn and a general 25-1 shot in ante-post betting for the Newmarket 2,000 Guineas.
There will be no classic campaign for the unbeaten Commissioning, however. Last year’s Fillies Mile winner has been retired by the John Gosden team after failing to recover from a leg injury.
The daughter of Kingman gave jockey Rab Havlin a first Group One victory when successful at Newmarket last October and had been expected to be Frankie Dettori’s final chance of a fifth 1,000 Guineas success in May.
A spokesman for owners Isa Salman and Abdulla Al Khalifa reported: “Commissioning sustained an injury to her left hind fetlock which has unfortunately proven to be significant and thus she won’t be able to continue to be trained.
“It’s very frustrating news, but she has given the owners and breeders an amazing thrill by becoming the first Bahraini homebred Group One winner. Of course a filly of this calibre, with her CV, will be an incredible asset to breed from in the future.”
Dermot Weld’s Tahiyra is a general 5-2 favourite for the 1,000 Guineas.
