Prince De Beauchene will finally get his chance at Aintree Grand National glory this Saturday but Willie Mullins is taking nothing for granted ahead of this week's massive Liverpool festival.
The champion trainer has a long list of entries for the three days, including both Hurricane Fly and Annie Power in Thursday’s Aintree Hurdle, but is holding fire on definite running plans for most of them.
The exception is Prince De Beauchene, as low as 16/1 in some ante-post lists for the National, although Mullins is keeping his fingers firmly crossed that the Graham Wylie-owned star can make it third time lucky in terms of simply making it to the big race.
The 11-year-old was favourite for the National in 2012 but was ruled out of contention on the eve of the race due to a stress fracture. Last year a similar fracture issue prevented Prince De Beauchene taking his chance over the big fences when he was a well-fancied second favourite.
This season he has been busier than usual with four runs already, the last of which came behind Texas Jack in the Kinloch Brae at Thurles in January.
“Prince De Beauchene definitely goes but I won’t be making any other decisions about Liverpool until I get home,” Mullins said in Dubai yesterday.
Mullins was in the Middle-East supervising his dual-purpose star Simenon who finished out of the money in Saturday's Gold Cup on the World Cup card at Meydan.
Staying highlight
Michael Halford's Certerach spring a lucrative 33/1 surprise in the staying highlight but other Irish hopes were unsuccessful with Aidan O'Brien's Ruler Of The World well behind the Godolphin winner of the $10 million highlight, African Story.
It was a bumper weekend of international success for Irish racing, though, as Tom Hogan's Gordon Lord Byron landed the $1 million George Ryder Stakes at Rosehill in Sydney on Saturday morning to become the first northern-hemisphere-trained Group One winner in New South Wales.
"Hogan's training triumph is set to open the floodgates and bring the internationals to Sydney in numbers in coming years – just like Dermot Weld did with Vintage Crop and the Melbourne Cup," predicted the Australian Telegraph newspaper yesterday.
Gordon Lord Byron now has a choice of the $3 million Doncaster Mile or the $2.5 million TJ Smith Sakes over six furlongs on the first day of the new "Championships" meeting at Randwick in a fortnight.
'Win either'
"Craig Williams said to me you can go anyway you like and you'll win either," Nenagh-based Hogan told local reporters.
Ireland’s global reach also extended to Paris on Saturday where the Barry Geraghty-ridden Un De Sceaux maintained his unbeaten in a Grade Three at Auteuil.
“He will certainly be entered for the Champion Hurdle at Punchestown but he will have alternatives in France as well. We will have to see,” Willie Mullins said yesterday.
Curragh trainer Willie McCreery has international ambitions of his own with stable-star Fiesolana who wound up a prolific 2013 with a Group Two success in Newmarket’s Challenge Stakes.
The five-year-old has since been purchased by Flaxmen stables who have Group One ambitions for Fiesolana this season.
“She’s got stronger again during the winter and the plan is to start her off in a Group Two at Saint-Cloud in early May,” McCreery said yesterday. “She’s owned by Flaxmen Stables now which is brilliant for the year so hopefully we can have a big year with her.”
In other Grand National news, some bookmakers are going odds-on about Tony McCoy teaming up with the Martin Brassial-trained Double Seven in Saturday’s spectacular.
McCoy has a choice of a number of JP McManus-owned horses which also include Colbert Station.
Double Seven is trained by Martin Brassil, a National winner in 2006 with Numbersixvalverde, and won five in a row last year before reappearing behind Pass The Hat in the Leopardstown Chase last month.
