Patrick Mullins won't be able to ride what he feels is the pick of the Closutton Randox Grand National team at Aintree - but hopes to taste success on Mr Incredible before he heads to Liverpool.
Speaking on this week's Sporting Life Racing Podcast he said “I’d have to chop a leg off unfortunately but I like the profile of Mr Incredible. He’s a young horse, he’s unexposed, he had a great run in the Classic Chase where he showed he can jump and stay and he’s going to get in right down at the bottom of the weights.
“For me he ticks all the right boxes. He’s the right age, right kind of profile and if I could ride one it would probably be him. He probably will go for the Kim Muir at Cheltenham beforehand and I’ll get a spin on him there and I’d fancy him strongly in that as well.”
The jockey was also very taken by the performance of Ballyburn who made a winning debut in the bumper at Punchestown on Sunday despite doing plenty wrong.
“He’d won his point-to-point impressively and showed a good turn of foot in that too. What was particularly impressive on Sunday was that he did it having been so keen through the race," he said.
“He was very keen early on and then just when I’d just got him half settled as we went down the back straight, Charlie Mullins and Champagne Admiral clipped my heel and you could see Ballyburn’s tail flash up and he takes off again and never dropped it once, he fought me everywhere.
“Normally horses drop it after a mile or a mile and two and take a breath but he never did. All the way down the side I was thinking to myself ‘I’m going to have to pull you out of here and keep filling you up’ and even when the Mulryan horse, Irish Panther, has come upsides and kicked past I couldn’t go when I’d normally go because he’d been so on it all the way.
Reminiscent of Dysart Dynamo
“Then when I really needed him going through the wings of the last and gave him a couple of smacks he’s really taken off. I couldn’t believe he won by two lengths in the end.
“I think the last horse that pulled like that with me and won was Dysart Dynamo. It was some performance and there looked to be some good depth to the race. Gordon’s was well fancied, Irish Panther had a good run before and Pat Fahey's horse (Champagne Admiral) was fancied too,
“It’s only slightly over three weeks to the Champion Bumper and we’ll have to see how he comes out of it and perhaps he had a hard race but he looked fine on Tuesday morning and we’ll see over the next week or ten days whether he goes to Cheltenham or not.”
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