Patrick Mullins to enjoy road trip to Hexham
Patrick Mullins running the track as he chats with Rachael Blackmore aboard Good N Kind on herway to the start for the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden Hurdle at Limerick yesterday. Picture: Healy Racing
Hexham is the latest stop on Patrick Mullins' tour of UK racecourses in his attempt to ride a winner at them all and Road To Home should be hard to beat in the Happy Birthday Margaret Watling Maiden Hurdle.
Mullins has taken in the likes of Catterick, Wetherby and just last week Haydock, as slowly but surely, he crosses off each track.
He openly admits the fact he is the son and assistant trainer of the all-conquering Willie Mullins means he is in an extremely privileged position to enable him to even think of such a task.
However, it still takes some pulling off and he would be joining a fairly elite list if he manages it.
Road To Home won a Listowel bumper before joining Mullins but on his stable debut he ran out at the second last when still in with a chance of winning.
Meanwhile, Ryanair Chase winner Fact To File could drop back in trip for a tilt at the William Hill Champion Chase at the Punchestown Festival, connections have revealed.
The Willie Mullins-trained gelding was a brilliant winner at Cheltenham, but with no middle-distance option available in County Kildare, he will either contest the Punchestown Gold Cup or be asked to run over two miles in the Champion Chase.
Which race he ultimately lines up for is likely to depend on whether his owner JP McManus elects to run Gold Cup hero Inothewayurthinkin in the Punchestown equivalent.
Should Fact To File run in the Champion Chase, he could meet another McManus-owned Festival winner in his stablemate Dinoblue, who landed the Mares' Chase in the Cotswolds two weeks ago.
Speaking at Limerick on Sunday, the owner's racing manager Frank Berry said: "Obviously Inothewayurthinkin isn't going to Liverpool (Aintree), so it'll be either Punchestown or pull up. He'll want safe ground and again, ground depending, Fact To File will also go to Punchestown.
"It's up in the air but Fact To File has the two-mile and the three-mile options. It depends if the other fella (Inothewayurthinkin) runs but Fact To File could well go back to two miles.
"Dinoblue will probably again tog out in the Champion Chase, so there is every chance, if the ground is OK, that the three will run in Punchestown."
