Gitane heads to Huntingdon Gitane Du Berlais bids to provide Willie Mullins with his first winner at Huntingdon after making the journey from Ireland for Thursday's Lady Protectress Mares' Chase. The all-conquering champion trainer saddled his first runners at the Cambridgeshire circuit when Screaming Rose and Snag List finished fourth and sixth respectively in a Listed bumper at the track in early December and he now bids to make it third time lucky with this high-class mare. Gitane Du Berlais claimed Grade One glory in the Scilly Isles Novices' Chase at Sandown in January of last year before going on to enjoy success in France. She made a disappointing start to the current campaign after being beaten at odds-on at both Punchestown and Carlisle before failing to fire on her return to Sandown for a hurdle race early in the new year, but bounced back to form with a comfortable all-the-way success at Naas last time. She faces four opponents in Thursday's two-and-a-half-mile Listed contest, with the Kim Bailey-trained Emily Gray seemingly her biggest danger.
