Egg-ceptional Yorkhill out on Easter Sunday
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Mullins and Walsh ready to roll
A busy Easter Sunday of UK and Irish horse racing is made up of meetings at Fairyhouse, Ffos Las, Southwell, Plumpton and Cork, and you can back your opinions here at Coral. We are betting on all the domestic action, as well as racing from across the globe. Click now to have your say.
Our Sunday NAP and next best goes at County Meath, where seven legs get underway from 1.45pm. There’s a couple of grade one contests to spark your afternoon to life, including the Gold Cup Novice Chase, due at 4.00pm. At the bottom of this page you will find a pick in every race.
Yorkhill arrives on a winning run
Seven runners are expected to battle it out over the two-mile four-furlong trip, and we have some big names penned in, including Willie Mullins’ star Yorkhill, who is sure to be extremely popular in the betting. The hugely talented six-year-old gelding arrives at track on the back of a stunning hat-trick, winning at Fairyhouse to cap a fantastic 2016 before going on to start this year in a rich vein of form, scoring at Leopardstown and Cheltenham.
The most impressive of that trio came, without doubt, at the festival when winning the JLT Novices Chase over two-mile three-furlongs. Going off a 6/4 favourite that day, he more than lived up to the pre-race hype, beating Top Notch into second to gift backers a valuable edge over the bookies on a day that proved difficult to get favourites home.
Mullins looking to win this race for the first time
Yorkhill didn’t run a perfect race that day, but was not far off it, recovering from early trouble to wait his turn, sitting patiently in the wings before laying down a challenge at the business end of the contest. Once in front he was not for catching, staying on at the finish.
Ruby Walsh was in the saddle that day, and returns to do the steering again here. The jockey loves this horse, he told anyone who would listen exactly that in the run up to the festival, and connections have assured followers they remain confident he can continue his winning run on Sunday. Patrick Mullins spoke to the press recently, explaining that Yorkhill has been kept in good shape since Cheltenham, and they are keen to win this race, as they’ve never managed it before. That will be music to the ears of Yorkhill backers.
Sticking with Walsh and Mullins
The other grade one race of the day goes slightly earlier in the card at 2.50pm, the Mares Novices Hurdle Championship Final, also over 2m 4f. We stick with Mullins and Walsh, who team-up with Let’s Dance in this one.
She is another who arrives in form, and takes a CV showing victory in each of her last four into this. A high-five certainly wouldn’t come as any surprise to followers of the five-year-old. Like Yorkhill, she was also seen winning last time at Cheltenham in March, taking a mares novices hurdle from nearest finisher Barra. She ran a cracker that day, and fully deserved the prize money, going well from start to finish.
Despite that winning run there seems to be more to come from Let’s Dance, and we should see an example of it on Sunday. Certainly one for your multiples.
Fairyhouse Selections
1.45 – Tudor City
2.20 – Babanango
2.50 – Let’s Dance
3.25 – Don’t Touch It
4.00 – Yorkhill
4.35 – Crest
5.10 – Red Jack
