Cadmium© Photo Healy Racing
An exciting afternoon looks in store for the beginning of the Punchestown Winter Festival on Saturday.
The card is headlined by the Betway Craddockstown Novice Chase, where Cadmium will command plenty of attention for the Willie Mullins team, with the Supreme Horse Racing Club-owned six-year-old having shown a particular liking for the Kildare track.
Mullins' charge picked up a valuable handicap at the big festival in April and landed Grade Three honours in the Buck House Novice Case last month.
The Grade Two contest has a rich recent history, being won by Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Sizing John in 2015, when trained by Henry de Bromhead.
De Bromhead has a strong association with the race, having also won it with Identity Thief, Days Hotel and the multiple Grade One winner Sizing Europe, and he could be represented by recent Wexford winner Mind's Eye.
Gordon Elliott is set to call on Hardline, who like Mind’s Eye runs in the colours of Gigginstown House Stud. The six-year-old was a classy novice hurdler last term, and made a winning start over fences at Fairyhouse last month.
Elliott said: "I’m hoping to run Hardline in the Betway Craddockstown Novice Chase. He won nicely at Fairyhouse and he’s a horse that tends to improve for his first run of the season so there should be more to come from him."
The card also features the Listed Frontline Security Grabel Mares Hurdle, and Mullins is well represented with his four acceptors including last season’s high-class juvenile hurdler Stormy Ireland and the former Cheltenham Festival heroine Limini.
