SANDOWN: Saturday, December 4
Champion amateur jockey Patrick Mullins rides Chacun Pour Soi, the highest-rated jumps horse in training, in the Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown today (Saturday). He is joined by his Irish weigh room colleague Rachael Blackmore on the Henry de Bromhead-trained Captain Guinness as they take on the best English-trained best two-mile chasers in the famous race.
The Tingle Creek Chase goes off at 2:25pm
WLR's Racing Correspondent Mark Philips says the five-horse race is a case of 'quality rather than quantity'. While Henry de Bromhead is having a good run, he says the impressive Naas winner Captain Guinness will require a career-best performance if he hopes to upstage the likes of Chacun Pour Soi and Newbay Negra.
NAVAN: Saturday, December 4
Meanwhile, Navan host the €100,000 Bective Stud Handicap Hurdle, the most valuable race at the County Meath track this year. The Paul Nolan-trained Coventry is certainly one to watch as he steps up to this distance for the first time.
The first of eight races goes to post at 11:30am
CORK: Sunday, December 5
Exciting Energumene will bid to add his name to a roll of honour featuring household names from the same Willie Mullins stable such as Chacun Pour Soi, Un De Sceaux and Douvan in the Grade 2 Kerry Group Hilly Way Chase at Cork on Sunday but faces stiff competition from dual Grade 1 winning novice chaser, Notebook, trained in County Waterford by Henry de Bromhead.
Racing at Cork gets underway at 11:40am
PUNCHESTOWN: Sunday, December 5
10 horses line-up for a cracking renewal of the Grade 1 John Durkan Memorial Chase at Punchestown on Sunday.
Odds-on favourite Envoi Allen, who returns to Grade 1 company for trainer Henry de Bromhead and Rachael Blackmore heads the content, but the popular seven-year-old will face his toughest ever assignment on this occasion.
De Bromhead’s Aintree Grand National hero Minella Times will make his first public appearance of the season and is a plum spare ride for amateur Derek O’Connor.
While Willie Mullins takes aim with seven runners in the race, led by Allaho the emphatic Ryanair Chase winner at the Cheltenham Festival last March.
The first race at Punchestown on Sunday is at 11:55am
