Willie Mullins has confirmed Paul Townend will be on board Allaho when the giant nine-year-old bids to give Ireland’s champion trainer a third Ladbrokes King George VI Chase victory at Kempton on St Stephen’s Day.
Townend will travel to Kempton rather than ride at Leopardstown where Facile Vega is likely to start favourite for the Grade One Racing Post Novice Chase.
Allaho also tops the King George ante-post market for which final declarations will be made on Saturday.
With Gerri Colombe waiting for Leopardstown’s Savills Chase, Irish interest in the prestigious Kempton contest is also set to include Hewick, who will be ridden for the first time by in-form jockey Gavin Sheehan.
“It is the one race every rider looks forward to over the Christmas period as before the Cheltenham Gold Cup you always target the King George,” said Sheehan, who won last weekend’s December Gold Cup at Cheltenham on Fugitif.
“It would be unbelievable if I could win the King George as it would top the year off,” said the Co Cork-born rider.
Sheehan is a late call-up by trainer ‘Shark’ Hanlon after Hewick’s regular partner Jordan Gainford was forced to cry off through injury.
Adrian Maguire was a famously late option for Mullins when the pair combined for King George glory with Florida Pearl in 2001.
Two decades later it was the trainer’s nephew, Danny Mullins, who delivered a superb performance to land the spoils with the 28-1 outsider Tornado Flyer.
This time Mullins’s No 1 rider will be on duty at Kempton where he could also team up with either Klassical Dream or Grangeclare West in the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase.
“Paul goes to Kempton,” said Mullins who is also gearing up his Gold Cup champion Galopin Des Champs for a Christmas date in Leopardstown’s Savills Chase next Thursday.
Galopin Des Champs disappointed behind Fastorslow in last month’s Durkan Chase but Mullins reported: “I’m not sure we got the right tactics that day and we might change things around a bit for this race.
“I’m looking forward to it and looking forward to see what he can do. I’m quite happy with him at home. Three miles will suit him and it will suit the opposition. These horses want a trip, we’ll learn a little bit more about him there.”
The Mullins team will get a pre-Christmas cross-channel ‘sighter’ at Ascot on Saturday, although what their big handicap hope Onlyamatteroftime gets up to during the race will be the focus of much attention.
Formerly in the care of Niall Madden, the horse ducked and ran out in the closing stages of a race in Cork last August.
On his first start for Mullins, in last month’s Greatwood Hurdle at Cheltenham, he did the same thing, but even earlier in the race with four flights still to jump.
Danny Mullins has mastered some quirky types in his time, most notably the dual-Stayers’ Hurdle champion Flooring Porter, but faces a real test in the Betfair Trophy, worth almost €175,000, and the finale to Saturday’s Long Walk Hurdle card.
That Onlyamatteroftime, who carries the familiar colours of Paul Byrne, started favourite for the Greatwood suggests there’s talent to go with the temperament.
There is also the fact he gets substantial chunks of weight from all 10 of his rivals, who include the JP McManus-owned pair Impose Toi and Iberico Lord, the horse that wound up winning the Greatwood.
Cross-channel trained runners are notable by their absence in advance of the busy Christmas programme in Ireland but the same can’t be said in reverse.
The ex-Mullins trained El Barra has a second start for Conor O’Dwyer in a handicap chase at Ascot, while Gavin Cromwell has the two bottomweights in the valuable Howden Silver Cup.
Yeah Man fell at the last on his previous trip to Ascot, but Hascoeur Clermont won at both Galway and Cheltenham and has Conor Stone-Walsh’s 5lb claim to help him.
There will other Irish interest at Haydock where Ross O’Sullivan’s Bythesametoken lines up for a two-mile handicap chase.
The Grade One Long Walk hasn’t got an Irish runner, although Gloucestershire-based Fergal O’Brien is hoping his progressive young horse Crambo can upset some hardy veterans.
They don’t come much hardier than Paisley Park, who will try to emulate Baracouda by becoming a four-time winner of the three-mile contest.
Just beaten by Dashel Drasher on his return to action at Newbury, Paisley Park renews rivalry with him and another 11-year-old star in Champ.
“I was delighted with how he was at Newbury and these races take a lot of winning, so it is lovely to see so many of the old boys back again.
“He kept galloping, and that is what we wanted to see – and if he can keep doing that, and if his legs can go round fast enough, he will be giving it his all,” said Paisley Park’s trainer Emma Lavelle.
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