Mighty Park taking Supreme route at Cheltenham

Mighty Park will contest Tuesday’s Skybet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle after connections opted not to confirm his entry for Wednesday’s Turners Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

Owned by JP McManus and trained by Willie Mullins, wide-margin Fairyhouse maiden winner Mighty Park had joined Paul Nicholls’ unbeaten Challow Hurdle hero No Drama This End at the top of the Turners betting after rave reviews from his handler, who compared the five-year-old’s achievements so far to something akin to his former Champion Hurdle hero Faugheen.

Unlike Faugheen – who won the race now known as the Turners in 2014 – Mighty Park will run over the minimum distance in the race that opens up proceedings at the Festival.

McManus’ racing manager Frank Berry said: “Touch wood, he will run in the Supreme and you know just as much about him as we do.

“He’s a bit of a talking horse. He missed his engagement at Christmas which was a pity, but he won very impressively when he ran at Fairyhouse and Willie seems to be very happy with him.

“Willie is happy to go down the two-mile road with him and we’re happy to go along with his opinion.”

The Paul Nicholls-trained No Drama This End is one of 33 Turners acceptors, a number which also includes Nicky Henderson’s Sidney Banks scorer Act Of Innocence and Skylight Hustle, who was a Grade One winner over two miles for Gordon Elliott at Christmas, but is set to head over further now with the form subsequently boosted by Talk The Talk.

The latter is also in the mix for both the Supreme and the Turners, with his trainer Joseph O’Brien saying earlier this week a decision on which race he will ultimately contest will be made late.

The Turners represents a chance for No Drama This End’s joint-owner Max McNeill to finally get off the mark at the Cheltenham Festival and with a horse that has also drawn comparisons with a great from Festival’s past, the Gold Cup winner Denman.

McNeill said: “After we won the Challow we were clear favourite, but since then people have been keen to knock the form and talk about other horses and you do sometimes wonder are we as good as we thought we were.

“Denman and other good horses have been beat in the Turners and as long as we run well, that is the main thing. You can’t be thinking about winning and I guess we’re already looking forward to next season with him as win, lose or draw on Wednesday, he owes us nothing.

“If one of the Irish horses or Act Of Innocence or the other British horses is better than us, then fair play and it wouldn’t be surprising. But at the same time they are going to have to be good to beat us and he has done nothing wrong so far over hurdles.”

The other supporting Grade One on what is the official return of Ladies’ Day at the Festival is the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase, in which Mullins again has a tight grip at the top of the betting with Final Demand still heading most bookmakers’ lists despite seeing his momentum checked at the Dublin Racing Festival.

His stablemate and conqueror Kaid d’Authie will don the McManus silks while Gordon Elliott’s Western Fold split the Mullins pair at Leopardstown and is also in the mix.

Kauto Star Novices’ Chase winner Kitzbuhel, Joystick, Argento Boy and Predators Gold are other possibles for Mullins, while Elliott has left in Romeo Coolio, with a decision on which race he will contest set to be made at the weekend.

Others from Ireland among the 18 remaining include Gavin Cromwell’s Thyestes Chase winner Now Is The Hour, who was supplemented for the race on Thursday, Henry de Bromhead’s The Big Westerner – second in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle at the meeting last year – and Oscars Brother, who will bid to continue his remarkable rise through the ranks for two-horse trainer Connor King.

Wendigo is the pick of the British, with Philip Hobbs and Johnson White’s Thomas Mor and Gary and Jamie Moore’s Salver also engaged.

Cromwell’s defending champion Stumptown and Elliott’s impressive Trials day scorer Favori De Champdou headline the 18 confirmations for the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase.

There are 52 and 36 left in the BetMGM Cup and Grand Annual respectively, with 32 remaining in the Weatherbys Champion Bumper, in which Mullins holds a typically strong hand for a race he has won a record 14 times.

Hopes of a first British winner since 2016 appear to lie with Chris Gordon and his unbeaten Listed winner Bass Hunter, while six-time Irish champion Flat jockey Colin Keane will be in action for Noel Meade aboard The Mourne Rambler.