The_Guardian_-_2016-12-29

“She’s extraordinary,” Mullins said. “She works with our Champion Hurdle horses, we know she gets
three miles now, she can jump hurdles or go over fences, so she’s the sort of supersub in the Ricci
team and that’s how she’ll be campaigned.
“We’ll put her in wherever we think she can win at Cheltenham, all being well. She’s a unique mare.”
Mullins took the wraps off yet another possible contender for championship honours at Cheltenham in
March when Bleu Et Rouge produced an exceptional turn of foot from a deeply unpromising position
two out to win the card’s Beginners’ Chase.
Barry Geraghty still had at least five lengths to find turning for home but coaxed an irresistible run
from Bleu Et Rouge, who got up to beat Gangster – yet another of O’Leary’s ex-Mullins contingent –
by three-quarters of a length.
“He schools well at home but he didn’t bring that to the track,” Mullins said. “I think he got a fright at
the first and then he continued to frighten himself the whole way until the third-last. I still thought he’d
lost too much ground at the last to win the race but then it was as if he’d just joined in. He’ll need a
bit more schooling but he’s a nice one.”
Mullins also reflected on his golden run of form this week after a slow start to the season following
the departure of O’Leary’s horses.
“Last week, I was hoping that [Tuesday’s winner] Douvan might get there but I was hoping that we
wouldn’t have a bad meeting,” Mullins said. “We’ve just had a very, very slow [start to the] year,
even by our standards and it’s just picking up nicely now, so I’m delighted.
“We had a very dry autumn this year and we’re normally slow to get going but that’s the only reason I
could say, and probably the loss of half the yard as well. But we’ve a great team at home. It’s all
about keeping your horses in order and your people in order and trying to have them right for the big
meetings – and that seems to have worked.
“It was a blow, obviously, you hate losing a group of horses like that but that’s the way, everyone has
got to do what they want to do and that’s the way it was.”
This article was downloaded by calibre from https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/dec/28/outlander-kennedy-oleary-mullins-leopardstown
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