Willie Mullins Punchestown Gamble: Bumper runner gets in as first reserve

The master of Closutton Willie Mullins has a strong team at the Punchestown Festival this week. He had a brilliant Cheltenham Festival and is looking to build on that success on his home turf for the jump’s season finale.

He is operating at a brilliant 30 per cent strike-rate at Punchestown this current season. Over the past five years, that strike-rate is at 22 per cent, quite astonishing numbers really.

Moving on and focusing solely on bumpers, that figure goes up well over 30 per cent. Willie has two runners in the bumper at Punchestown tonight, Hara Kiri and Glowing Account.

The former has been the overnight favourite and that is still the case but the latter was a first reserve. Rockonsoph has been withdrawn which means that Glowing Account will now get in as a first reserve.

The market has reacted

Owned by Ballyhinch Stud, Glowing Account has been subject to significant market support since he was declared a runner. The market has reacted by cutting the Willie Mullins runner from 9-1 into 5-1, and that is not slowing down.

We know very little about this horse who will be making his Rules debut this evening. The four-year-old is a well-bred Le Havre gelding and is sure to know his job at the first time of asking.

This is significant money, especially taking into consideration that Willie also trains the current favourite, which Patrick Mullins rides.

Our man Owen Goulding wrote a Willie Mullins piece that is also certainly worth a second look. It is titled “The 107-1 Willie Mullins accumulator that could kick-start your Punchestown“. It could be a cracking day for the top trainer in Ireland.

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