Willie Mullins, Ireland’s champion trainer for the past 11 seasons, has raised fears that horses may be forced to miss this week’s Cheltenham Festival due to irregularities with their passports or documentation.
Fresh procedures have been introduced before this year’s meeting following the outbreak of equine flu in February which resulted in British racing being suspended for six days. These include a requirement for all runners from overseas to have returned a negative swab for equine flu no more than 72 hours before their arrival at Cheltenham.
“With the amount of protocols we’ve got to go through now, and with the new vaccination rules and everything else between the Irish and English rules, it can be very confusing for trainers,” Mullins said.
“We got caught out with a horse in France last year, it happens. We’ve had horses checked and we think their passports are fine and the next thing, someone else comes in and tells us that it’s wrong. It’s not as black-and-white as it seems and we’re going to see withdrawals at Cheltenham, I think, due to passport irregularities. It will be disappointing, but I will be more than surprised if it doesn’t happen.
“We’ve got a 72-hour window from taking a swab to arriving at the gates at Cheltenham and it’s going to be tough if the results are late getting back from the labs or if we get bad weather that suspends the boats for 24 or 48 hours, then we’re in trouble.”
The British Horseracing Authority said on Sunday that it was confident its new regulations would not lead to any horses from overseas missing out on a run at the Festival.
“The BHA has been liaising closely with the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board and individual trainers in Ireland,” Robin Mounsey, the BHA’s head of media, said. “We are confident that if procedures are followed correctly then there will be no need for any unnecessary withdrawals.”
Mullins’s Klassical Dream, who beat his stable companion Aramon by a neck in a Grade One event at Leopardstown in early February, was a big springer in the market for the Supreme Novice Hurdle, the opening race of the Festival, after 18 runners were declared at the final stage on Sunday morning.
Klassical Dream was as big as 12-1 overnight but is now top-priced at 6-1, just a point behind the joint-favourites Al Dancer and Angels Breath, having been confirmed as the mount of Ruby Walsh. Joseph O’Brien’s juvenile Fakir D’Oudairies has also been confirmed for the race and can be backed at 13-2 while Aramon is a 16-1 chance to overturn his narrow defeat last time out.
As expected, Gordon Elliott’s Apple’s Jade has been declared for the Champion Hurdle rather than the Mares’ Hurdle later on the card and heads the market at 9-4.
Stratford 2.10 Red Force One 2.40 Master Vintage 3.10 Clondaw Westie 3.40 Eskendash 4.10 Bletchley Castle 4.40 Starsky 5.10 Full Time Party
Plumpton 2.20 Myplaceatmidnight 2.50 Champion Chase 3.20 Potters Hedger 3.50 Secret Door 4.20 Heresmynumber 4.55 Polar Light
Taunton 2.30 Urtheonethatiwant 3.00 Scaramanga 3.30 Micras
4.00 Achille (nap) 4.30 Smarty Wild 5.05 Shintori 5.40 Miss Honey Ryder
Kempton 5.00 Physics 5.30 Bubbelah 6.00 Sybil Grand 6.30 Vegatina
7.00 Roman Spinner (nb) 7.30 Elysees Palace 8.00 Cottingham 8.30 First Call
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