Maze Out To Make Amends Under Walsh

Asian Maze will be ridden by Ruby Walsh in the Scottish And Newcastle Aintree Hurdle on Saturday.

Walsh will again partner the seven-year-old after they came to grief at the fourth flight in the Smurfit Kappa Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

'Ruby rides most of mine when he can but I'd have had absolutely no qualms with Paul Carberry (who had ridden the mare on her two previous outings) either,' confirmed trainer Tom Mullins.

Mullins revealed Asian Maze, a ready winner of last year's Sefton Novices' Hurdle at this meeting, has fully recovered from her crashing fall at the Festival and is in rude health ahead of the two-and-a-half-mile event.

'She's 100% now but she had a good bruise for a week there afterwards,' he added.

'It's completely gone now though.

'I'm far happier with her now this week than I was heading into Cheltenham,' Mullins told At The Races.

Asian Maze impressed as a novice last season with her bold front-running style and had only raced once prior to the Champion Hurdle, when staying on in eyecatching fashion to take second behind Macs Joy in the Red Mills Trial Hurdle in February.

? PA Sport