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Leading Irish jumps trainer, Willie Mullins is ready and is “looking forward” to Royal Ascot with multiple runners, hopeful of gaining a start at the meeting.
Echoes In Rain and Vauban , both Grade 1 winning hurdlers are nominated as part of the team of four or five for the stable with the five-day festival beginning on Tuesday 20 June.
Willie Mullins, who is the most successful trainer in the history of the Cheltenham Festival with 94 winners enjoyed an excellent Cheltenham in March being crowned leading trainer of the meeting with six winners including the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the first three home in the Triumph Hurdle.
He is no stranger to the winners' enclosure at Royal Ascot having recorded eight victories in his career and will be aiming to increase that statistic at this year's festival. Ten-year-old Stratum has been nominated for the final race on the entire week, the 2m 6f Queen Alexandra Stakes, a race he will be seeking victory in for the third successive year.
Bring On The Night looks likely for the Ascot Stakes whilst it is the high-class hurdlers Echoes In Rain and Vauban that will be the most fascinating contenders for the stable.
Echoes in Rain has been well supported in ante-post betting markets for the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup, the feature on Ladies' Day (Thursday 22 June), and is as short as 9-1 with Coral for the 2m 4f prize. The mare posted an excellent fourth behind Honeysuckle in the Grade 1 David Nicholson Mares' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in March before winning at the top level over hurdles in April at Punchestown.
Mullins spoke about his star performer and her chance in the staying feature contest:
"She's in good form, working well and we're very happy to take our chance.
"We're delighted to have one to run in it. She has run well on decent ground before and I hope it won't be an issue.
"It will be hard to think she'd have a winning chance, but if she could finish in the first six, it would be a tremendous run."
Vauban has an entry in the Copper Horse Handicap on the opening day and the three-time Grade 1 hurdle winner ran well when last seen in April when second at Punchestown.
Assessing his prospects for the week Mullins added:
"Hopefully we will have a small team of four or five runners.
"Stratum, who won there last year, will go for the same race again [Queen Alexandra] on the Saturday.
"Vauban will probably go for the mile and six [Copper Horse], while Bring On The Night, who was beaten in a four-way finish last year [Ascot Stakes], will probably go back for the same race.
"We'll have a small team, but we're looking forward to it."
