13:05
Carlisle
Odds correct as of 10:03am 15th Feb
A standard day at Carlisle on a Monday has been made all the more interesting by the fact Willie and Patrick Mullins are both in town, plus we have a jockey statistic that you won’t want to miss!
Opening the card at Carlisle is a 2m1f novices’ hurdle and Brian Hughes has ridden the winner of this contest five times in the last six years, which is an incredible feat. The SPs of those winners were 9/2, 5/2, 6/5, Evens and 4/9 and Hughes will take the ride on the Donald McCain-trained Kilnesare Flight here. It’s worth noting that McCain was responsible for four of those five winners too.
Kilnesare Flight finished second in an Irish point and filled the same spot on rules debut in a course bumper in November. The son of Malinas went one better on hurdle debut at Ayr last month when landing a late gamble for connections on heavy ground over two miles. The fourth has won since and he’s open to plenty more improvement so everything looks set for a massive effort again.
There will be plenty of Irish interest as Stuart Crawford has a few interesting runners on the card, but Willie Mullins has sent across one horse and Patrick will take the ride.
He’s On Fire – who is owned by the Riccis – makes his debut for the yard after three runs in France, the last of which when beaten a neck by an unbeaten runner in a 2m2f hurdle on heavy ground in November. He should be very hard to beat in a winnable contest and interestingly he has a couple of Grade 1 entries for Cheltenham next month.
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