Paul Townend takes one ride at Exeter for the first time ever on Friday

Appreciate It & Paul Townend - Paddy Power Future Champions Novice Hurdle

Liam Bramall

Published: February 19, 2026

Horse racing is in Liam's blood and his biggest passion is jumps racing. He can often be found at his favourite tracks; Chepstow and Cheltenham in the Autumn when the National Hunt action kicks off. In his own words: "I'm often referred to as a walking form book, a trait which comes in handy from time to time. My proudest tipping success to date was landing a whopping 682-1 accumulator at Epsom."

Paul Townend has ridden winners at plenty of tracks in Britain, with most of those coming at Cheltenham, but it’s not too often that we see him riding at the smaller courses. In fact, he has never ridden at Exeter before but that could be set to change on Friday. He’s scheduled to head there for just one ride for regular boss Willie Mullins and he won’t want to come away empty-handed. Take a look at our free tips page for daily content across British and Irish racing.

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CLAIM

3.14 Exeter

Fun Fun Fun should be very hard to beat in this race, if the handicapper is correct. She is at least 14lb better than her two rivals on ratings, which leaves the others with plenty to find. This daughter of Martaline won a Grade 3 and Listed contests last season but hasn’t been at her best this year.

Beating Paggane by four lengths up at Perth back in April, the runner-up has boosted that form a couple of times since, winning two Listed mares’ races at Carlisle and Market Rasen.

Townend will be riding with confidence after landing a double with his two rides at Thurles on Thursday and his overall strike-rate in the last fortnight is very healthy. Willie Mullins has one winner from two previous runners at Exeter and that certainly bodes well for Fun Fun Fun’s chances here.

It’s difficult to see either of the other runners posing a threat but Blue Las is improving and could be the one to fill second-place. A return to winning ways could well be on the cards for Mullins’ mare.

Fun Fun Fun

Analysis

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