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Leopardstown Christmas Hurdle Odds: Willie Mullins Out To Land The Spoils

The woodiesdiy.com Christmas Hurdle is one of the feature races on day three of Leopardstown's Christmas Festival with several useful looking staying hurdlers looking to land this three mile Grade Two contest on Wednesday.

Willie Mullins won this race twelve months ago with Mourad who will take his chance again on Wednesday afternoon and with some useful pieces of form to his name in the past, if this six year old is in the right mood, he is sure to be in the reckoning once again. A comfortable two length winner when going off the 7/4 favourite in last year's race, followed up by an easy victory in the Grade Two Galmoy Hurdle at Gowran in February was enough to see him rated as a lively threat to Big Bucks in the World Hurdle and whilst he was no match for the Paul Nicholls trained superstar, he was far from disgraced, finishing just over four lengths behind in third. However, he has not won in any of his three starts since that effort but continues to make the frame. He still has bags of ability and it would be no surprise if he made a return to winning ways here and land the spoils in this renewal for a second year running and is a 5/4 chance to do so at Boylesports.

On his last start at Fairyhouse at the start of December in the Hatton's Grace Hurdle, Mourad had to settle for second place behind the Colm Murphy trained, Voler La Vedette, who also lines up in this race and is the only Grade One winner in the field and as such, holds strong claims. Winner of both starts this Autumn, firstly at Navan in November before seeing off Mourad earlier this month, there is no doubting that Voler La Vedette is currently at the top of her game and with more improvement likely to come, it would come as no suprise to see this mare rack up a hat-trick of wins here, for which she's rated a 13/8 chance. However, her last two wins have come over a distance of 2m 4f and she's never won beyond 2m 5f, thus, leaving question marks to answer over her ability to get the three mile trip and on soft ground, a test of stamina is sure to on the cards.

One runner who will have problem with the trip or conditions is Powerstation from the Eamon O'Connell yard, a reliable sort who has been consistent for the past few years without hitting the highest level, including a win in this very rae bak in 2009. It's probably safe to assume that this 11 year old's best days are behind him but he still remains capable of making the frame as proved when landing a 17 runner handicap at Navan a couple of weeks back, although he was no match for Zaidpour in the Grade Two Tara Hurdle last week. Although he cannot be totally written off, this race does seem beyond him and the likely winner does look set to come from the younger horses in the race.

Willie Mullins can win this race for a second year in the form of Mourad, a horse more than capable of winning back-to-back renewals of the Irish Christmas Hurdle. When he came up against Voler La Vedetterecently he was giving away 8lb to the mare, that is now 5lb and over the longer trip, over which he's proven, the Mullins representative can reverse the form.

Woodiesdiy.com Christmas Hurdle Selection

Mourad

Race Odds

Mourad 5/4
Voler a Vedette 13/8
Dare To Doubt 8/1
Karabak 9/1
Powerstation 14/1
Shakervilz 40/1

Odds courtesy of Boylesports.com

Posted: Tuesday, 27th December 2011
Author: Tony Smith
Tags: leopardstown, willie mullins, so young, boylesports,

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