Team Skyace win with Mullins Cross

Mullins Cross (14/1) gained a first career win at Sligo today, landing the Streedagh Beach Handicap Hurdle for Skyace's trainer Shark Hanlon and a group of enthusiastic Irish expat owners based in Dubai.

Mullins Cross, a place in Co Louth, was bred by Hanlon's partner Rachel O'Neill and today scored a comfortable win under 7lbs claimer Shane Fenelon.

Today's winning Budgieinthehand Syndicate is an offshoot of the Birdinthehand Syndicate, which enjoyed notable success with Easter's Grade 1 winner Skyace, a fairytale £600 purchase from Champion Trainer Willie Mullins in 2019.

Following today's win, Hanlon reported “I’m delighted to have won because the boys from Dubai, who also have Skyace with me, own her and I hope they all got a few quid. They rang me after the finish and all I could hear was ole, ole, ole!”

He added “she’s a low grade handicapper but I said to the boys that she’d love the cut in the ground and I’d say that was the winning of it for her.

“We ran her at Galway in a Flat race because we couldn’t get her into a hurdle race, and they wanted to go racing, and she ran a cracker and was only beaten twelve lengths or so behind the winner.”

Quotes from Mark Nunan