Patrick Mullins feels the five minutes before the Michael O'Sullivan Supreme Novices' Hurdle are vital to Kopek Des Bordes' chances in the race itself.
The five-year-old leapt to he head of the market for the Cheltenham Festival opener with a brilliant win at the Dublin Racing Festival. It earned him a Timeform master rating of 154P which would be enough to win a normal renewal of the Supreme, but will be able to deliver a similar performance given the atmosphere and build-up at Prestbuary Park?
“We think he’s the real deal. Look did we think he’d win at the DRF? Yes. Did we think he’d put in the performance he did? Well you couldn’t foresee that," Mullins told the Sporting Life Racing Podcast.
“He won first time out last year and blew us away there when he hadn’t had a great preparation and we thought he might blow up but he destroyed a very good field. He was keen and didn’t jump at Christmas, a few of our novices didn’t jump very well at Christmas and we don’t really know what that was about. Obviously he jumped a lot better the next day but the little worry is he’s going there off three runs.
