Amo Racing and Emmet Mullins off the mark over jumps with Dallas Star Amo Racing’s new link with Emmet Mullins got off to the best possible start when Dallas Star made a winning hurdling debut at Navan. It was announced this week that Kia Joorabchian’s Amo Racing would support Mullins when he moves into Jim Bolger’s historic Coolcullen yard in the coming months. In the meantime Amo have also sent some jumpers to Mullins and the Grand National-winning trainer wasted no time in making a mark for his new backer. A smart horse on the level for Adrian Murray and Robson De Aguiar, Dallas Star ran in the 2024 Derby and was rated 107 at his best. He was made to work hard after what should have been the second-last flight, but with the last hurdle omitted, Dallas Star (15-8 favourite) put his Flat speed to good use to beat En Or by half a length under Donagh Meyler. Mullins said: “I’ve just had a quick call with Kia on the phone and he is over the moon. He says he can’t believe his first jumps runner is a winner. I said, ‘we will start as we mean to go on!’. It is great. “We have only had him a few weeks and to be fair all we have done is just school him and he loves it. He enjoys his jumping. “It was a big ask for him to change stables, and change codes as well, and get his head in front so quickly. “He’s a lovely, tough horse and he has probably been having a hard enough time of it in the high grades on the Flat. I would imagine getting his head in front won’t do him any harm. It is great to start off on the right note.” He added: “I only just have him, but I’d be fairly sure the plan will be to stay over hurdles and get a good novice hurdle season out of him. Next summer, he is a horse that will definitely be more than capable of switching codes. “He has won his maiden, so he’s only got the novice bracket for this season. I’d say we will try to get as much as we can out of that.” On the upcoming move, Mullins said: “We have no time set in stone (over new premises) so for the time being we will concentrate on what we have got in Closutton first and I’m sure when the time comes, we will hopefully consolidate everything up there.” When asked about another Amo recruit, Square Necker, he replied: “He might take in a Flat run, but he has changed stables to go hurdling as well. “He does have some nice entries (on Flat), but I can teach him how to jump and I’m not sure how much I can improve him (on Flat) in such a short space of time for those races. “That’s up in the air, we will see how his schooling goes. He was a week or two behind Dallas Star and he (Dallas Star) was just a natural from the word go. He enjoys his jumping and it’s great to get him off the mark.”
