Fast Results
Scores
Racecards 
Timeform Daily View | Thursday preview and tips
John Ingles provides an overview of the key things to note on the racing front on Thursday.
Three points of interest
Collins’ Musselburgh raid can pay off
Taking a leaf out of the book of his former boss Gordon Elliott, County Meath trainer Cian Collins has made some successful raids with his runners across the Irish Sea, notably when the stable’s flag bearer Effernock Fizz won the Welsh Champion Hurdle in 2022. Collins has had winners at a handful of tracks in Britain, including at Cartmel during the summer, but his latest successful raid was another significant one as it came at Cheltenham last month where Impero continued the bright start he has made for the yard when winning a conditional jockeys’ hurdle.
Previously successful at Downpatrick, Impero is on his travels again and is part of a two-pronged raid for Collins at Musselburgh where he has good prospects of completing his hat-trick in the opening novice hurdle (12:25). Impero stays well on the Flat, so the step up in trip shouldn’t inconvenience him.
Stablemate There’s No Limit contests the following juvenile hurdle (13:00). He too makes a return visit to Britain after finishing third at Sedgefield last month and while his hurdles form is no better than modest, he does at least have some experience to call on in a race where all his rivals are making their hurdling debuts. There’s No Limit should also appreciate this sharper track after looking short on stamina. Conditional Carl Millar, claiming 5 lb, who rode for winners for Gordon Elliott at the Dublin Racing Festival and Punchestown Festival last season, takes the ride on both Collins’ runners at Musselburgh.
Good opportunity for Appreciate It at Thurles
Appreciate It might be a high-class chaser on his day but he’s some way down the pecking order in Willie Mullins’ star-studded yard. As a result, he wasn’t his stable’s first string in any of the good chases he contested last season when failing to win a race. In fact, his winless run dates back nearly two years to when he landed the odds in his first two starts over fences.
In his hurdling days, Appreciate It looked like going right to the top, completing an unbeaten novice season with victory in the Supreme at Cheltenham and then starting second favourite to Honeysuckle in the 2022 Champion Hurdle despite not having run for a year. Over fences, Appreciate It hasn’t fulfilled his early promise, not always looking the most straightforward, but he does have plenty of ability and it was only a year ago that he very nearly got his head in front when reappearing in the John Durkan at Punchestown, faring best of his stable’s five runners, Galopin des Champs included, in going down by half a length to Fastorslow.
Appreciate It also seemed to run well behind Fastorslow when fifth in the Punchestown Gold Cup when last seen and, dropped in class for his return, he looks to have been found a good opportunity to get his head in front in the listed chase at Thurles (12:40). Mullins runs three here but, for once, Appreciate It looks the stable’s first string with Paul Townend back on him for the first time since he finished second in Grade 1 company as a novice at the 2023 Punchestown Festival.
Appreciate It looks well treated by the race conditions, getting weight from stablemates Embassy Gardens and Nick Rockett who were smart staying novices last term. His biggest danger could therefore come from Gordon Elliott’s runner Fil Dor who has the benefit of a recent run when runner-up to Appreciate It’s stablemate Saint Sam in the Clonmel Oil Chase.
Hurdles debuts for daughters of smart mares
Augusta Kate and Glens Melody were both smart hurdlers when trained by Willie Mullins. Augusta Kate won the Grade 1 mares’ novice hurdle at Fairyhouse and ended her career with an excellent second in a strong edition of the Mares Champion Hurdle at Punchestown, splitting Benie des Dieux and Apple’s Jade. Glens Melody was still a novice when winning the first running of that Punchestown race as a Grade 1 contest but she’ll no doubt be best remembered for her dramatic win in the 2015 David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle at Cheltenham which looked at the mercy of stablemate Annie Power when she fell at the last, leaving Glens Melody to pick up the pieces.
The mares’ maiden hurdle at Thurles (14:25) is a far cry from those events, but it does see the hurdling debuts of daughters of both Augusta Kate and Glens Melody. Mullins also trains Baby Kate who is Augusta Kate’s first foal. She won her first two bumpers last season, including a listed mares’ event at Cheltenham, but she was disappointing when sent off favourite for the Nickel Coin Mares’ Bumper at Aintree, a race in which her dam had finished second.
Glens Melody’s daughter Glens Lullaby hasn’t shown quite the same level of ability in bumpers for Peter Fahey but she’s fit from landing the odds in clear-cut fashion in a mares’ contest at Wexford last month. But while Baby Kate and Glens Lullaby are interesting hurdling debutants here, they might find Mullins’ other runner, Gigginstown’s French import Karamoja, hard to beat if reproducing her form from Auteuil.
More from Sporting Life
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.