Mullins bumper winner is made Cheltenham favourite

Love Sign d’Aunou (5/4f) earned high praise from winning jockey Patrick Mullins following a towering bumper success in Naas’ Aloga Equestrian INH Bumper today, scoring another eccentric-to-Irish-eyes success for French-breeding.

The Willie Mullins-trained Love Sign d’Aunou made all the running in today’s 2m2f event and with nine rivals failing one-by-one, the five-year-old bounded clear for a 24 lengths win over Largy Star .

Love Sign d’Aunou is from the first crop of Goliath Du Berlais, a National Hunt-bred ex-chaser who retired from racing aged four and commands a €20,000 covering fee while, in contrast, today’s successful dam Ossun won a juvenile Listed flat race over six furlongs.

Mullins mentioned “Love Sign d’Aunou was very good, although doesn’t quite show that at home. I think he’s probably relentless and has a really high cruising speed.

“Jasmin De Vaux (former Cheltenham bumper winner) won this bumper in the past but he’d be a very different type of horse than him. He’s a relentless galloper, a big strong horse and he’s another nice one for Rich (Ricci, owner).”

“His pedigree doesn’t particularly say he should be a stayer but that’s what he shows at home and today is better than what we were hoping for.

“I’d imagine he’s a Cheltenham horse and he could be along the lines of Florida Pearl and those Cheltenham-type bumper horses.”

Love Sign d’Aunou, an April point-to-point winner for previous handler Ger Quinn, was cut by bookmakers to 8/1 favourite for the Cheltenham Bumper in March.

Quotes from Gary Carson