Mullins Out To Make History In Cheltenham Four Miler

The National Hunt Chase at the Cheltenham Festival is one of the longest races in the Jumps season at a distance of four miles and one of the highlights of the year for Amateur riders.

The race which is confined to Novice Chasers and Amateur riders has been won by some great staying horses over the years including subsequent Irish Grand National winner Butler’s Cabin and last year’s Aintree Grand National winner Tiger Roll.

Many of the best Amateur riders have won the four-miler down the years including an elite group with two wins each in the famous race- Willie Mullins (Hazy Dawn 1982 and Macks Friendly 1984), Tony Martin (Smooth Escort 1991 and Deejaydee 1999), the late John Thomas McNamara (Rith Dubh 2002 and Teaforthree 2012) and Derek O’Connor (Chicago Grey 2011 and Minella Rocco 2016).

Willie Mullins’ son Patrick has also won the race twice (Back In Focus 2013 and Rathvinden 2017) and the Champion Amateur has strong claims to land an elusive third victory in the race at Cheltenham this year with one of the ante-post favourites Ballyward.

Ballyward is currently 6/1 in the antepost Cheltenham betting for the National Hunt Chase on the opening day of the Festival with leading bookmaker 888Sport.

Ballyward ran out an impressive winner of a Grade 3 Chase at Naas in January on only his second start over the larger obstacles when powering home over the three mile distance for an 11 lengths victory under Ruby Walsh.

The lightly raced seven-year-old has been to Cheltenham before. He ran above expectations when a staying on fourth in last year's Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle at the festival and this bodes well for a strong performance in the National Hunt Chase.

Ballyward also boasts a top National Hunt staying pedigree. He is by Flemensfirth out of a daughter of the ten-time scorer Sallie's Girl.

Patrick Mullins could well have a fight on his hands to be the first Amateur rider to land a third National Hunt Chase at Cheltenham as Ballyward's chief rival in the ante-post market, OK Corral, was partnered by Derek O'Connor when successful at Warwick last month and the multiple Champion Point-to-Point rider is also on two wins in the big race.

OK Corral finished three lengths ahead of Ballyward when the pair met at Cheltenham last year and is likely to be a formidable opponent once again this year.