Emmet saddles first runner at Kilbeggan Willie Mullins has often spoke glowingly of the part played by his nephew Emmet Mullins in the success enjoyed by the all-conquering champion jumps trainer, and tomorrow evenings meeting at Kilbeggan provides a landmark moment for his protege who saddles his first runner. The horse in question is the four-year-old St Stephens Green who shaped well on debut when in the care of the champion trainer to finish a creditable seventh in the Goffs Land Rover Bumper at the Punchestown Festival. That form received a timely boost when third-placed Tesseract won recently at Tipperary, and the bumper at Kilbeggan certainly looks a significant drop in class. Emmet, whose winners as a jockey include a Grade 3 novice hurdle success at Limerick aboard the mighty Faugheen, has booked his cousin and great friend Patrick to again take the mount on the Diamond Green gelding. Gordon Elliott continues to blaze a trail in the early stages of the current National Hunt season, and the Co. Meath handler brings a powerful team to the midlands venue. From Frost provided Elliott with his 23rd winner of the campaign at Gowran on Saturday, and he brings a total of seven runners to Kilbeggan including both Akorakor and Shadow Catcher in the Midlands National Ladies Day July 17th Novice Chase. The Cullentra House team are also doubly represented in the Carmel Fay Memorial Handicap Hurdle with Seeyouallincoppers and Disputed. Credulous also holds prospects with Luke Dempsey aboard in the opening Martinstown Opportunity Maiden Hurdle, while Speed Demon has Sandymount Duke to beat in the T & V Novice Hurdle.
