Rain The Key To Travino Bid

Mags Mullins is hoping plenty of rain will fall at Cheltenham to allow her Grade One winner Travino to take his chance at next week’s Festival.

The County Kilkenny handler has the seven-year-old entered in both the Royal & SunAlliance Novices’ Hurdle and the Brit Insurance Novices’ Hurdle at the meeting, but underfoot conditions will dictate his running plans.

“We are thinking about coming across, but only if there is plenty of rain,” said Mullins.

“We need to see how much rain arrives so I will leave him in both races for the moment before I make a decision. If it does not rain enough then we will wait for Aintree.

“He is well though, and does his final bit of work tomorrow. We took him to Gowran last week for a gallop and he worked lovely, I was very happy with him.

“He is really a chaser for the future but I would love to travel him over to England to see how he handles it.”

Travino has won four of his seven starts under Rules and beat his subsequent victor Nicanor in a Grade One event at Navan in December.

? PA Sport