A winner of a hunter chase at Naas in late-January, Billaway (pictured above) is set to take his chance next Friday in this year's renewal of the Cheltenham Foxhunter chase.
A winner of a six-year-old geldings' maiden at Ballinaboola by a comfortable six lengths for handler Tracey Gilmour, Billaway subsequently changed hands following that initial success to Harold Kirk and Willie Mullins for a sum of £50,000 at the Tattersalls Cheltenham January Sale.
He has since been a model of consistency, with two wins along with five places from a total of eight starts.
Patrick Mullins is looking forward to partnering the John Turner-owned eight-year-old next Friday at the Prestbury Park venue.
"Willie decided to keep him hunter chasing, which we don't have too many younger hunter chasers, probably not since Bother Na ten or 15 years ago. I think it was a good decision and he seems to be improving all the time."
"I'm looking forward to riding him at Cheltenham. He schooled around Navan yesterday (3rd of March), and jumped well. It will be a very different type of race at Cheltenham. It was a slow-run race at Naas on good ground, and it could probably be a fast-run race on slower ground. I don't see any reason why that wouldn't suit him. Probably, in an ideal world you might have a little more experience but, hopefully he might have a couple of cracks at it."
"John Turner would be a big greyhound owner, as well as a big owner of Paul Hennessey's. He's had derby winners in the greyhound world, and he has several horses with us such as Buildmeupbuttercup and Tornado Flyer. A lot of them are in different colours and different syndicates."
Carefully Selected was a winner of a five-year-old geldings' maiden for the father-daughter combination of Ted and Katie Walsh at Monksgrange in 2017. Winning by a distance on that occasion, Mullins hoping to partner the since dual Grade 3 winner in the National Hunt chase.
"Hopefully I'll ride Carefully Selected in the National Hunt chase. He obviously won a point-to-point for Ted Walsh. I schooled him around Navan as well yesterday (3rd of March), and it went well. I'm looking forward to him."
Appreciate It won a four-year-old maiden at Dromahane in 2018 for Pat Doyle, before changing hands to Willie Mullins. The exciting six-year-old was very impressive in the Grade 2 Goffs Future Stars INH Flat Race at the Dublin Racing Festival, beating Risk Factor by a facile seven lengths. The son of Jeremy is now a deserving favourite for the Grade 1 Wetherby's Champion Bumper, the concluding race to Wednesday's card which was won last year by Envoi Allen. Naturally, Mullins is excited about partnering this talented gelding.
"I'm riding Appreciate It in the Champion bumper. He seems to be improving with every run, and I think the fact that he is a six-year-old that has had two point-to-point runs and three bumper runs, that will be a big advantage to him."
