Willie Mullins is planning a chasing campaign for Gaelic Warrior and has identified the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase at the Cheltenham Festival as a likely target.
Gaelic Warrior has headed the betting for the Stayers' Hurdle since winning the Irish Mirror Novice Hurdle by ten lengths at the Punchestown Festival but the five-year-old now looks set for a switch to chasing instead.
Speaking as part of an exclusive stable tour with Sporting Life, Mullins said: "We'll aim him for a beginners' chase and he looks like a sort of Brown Advisory horse - he's all stamina, jumps well, fine big stamp of a chaser. We'll start off in a beginners' chase somewhere and hopefully make our way to Cheltenham.
"I'm always keen to go chasing at this age rather than stay hurdling. If he doesn't take to fences - which he should, I'm not worried about him taking to fences - he can always go back to the Stayers' Hurdle route. To me he's a made novice chaser."
Another horse who looks set to join Gaelic Warrior in the novice chase division is Champion Bumper runner-up Fact To File.
Mullins said: "Fact To File is a horse I really like and I thought he ran a cracker in the Cheltenham bumper. He could go novice hurdling but I feel he should go novice chasing. He looks a real jumping type and at his age - he's six turning seven - I just feel he might be as well off going jumping.
"He has everything you'd want in a chaser - size, scope, temperament - and for me he's one who could make up into a real top-class chaser."
The switch straight to chasing from bumpers, bypassing a novice hurdle campaign, is a tactic Mullins memorably used with Florida Pearl who won eight times at the highest level over fences, including four Irish Gold Cups and a King George.
Mullins added: "We've done it with very few horses since Florida Pearl but this horse has the size, scope and temperament to take a chance and his age is a real reason why I want to go, it's a big factor. I think he's a real chaser so I'm keen to get him over jumps."
The first part of Sporting Life’s stable tour with the 17-time Irish champion jumps trainer will be available on sportinglife.com on Sunday October 22. Mullins will also be providing a weekly column, providing insight on his runners, during the core of the jumps season.
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