Willie Mullins has all but confirmed that last year’s OLBG Mares’ Hurdle winner Vroum Vroum Mag will look to retain her crown in the two-miles and four furlongs Grade One.
In a year where a number of Mullins’ big-race stars have been ruled out of the Festival due to injury, the Closutton handler had a tough decision to make over whether to supplement impressive Quevega Mares Hurdle winner Limini for the Champion Hurdle or let her take her chance in the Mares’ Hurdle and it seems that she will now join the aforementioned Vroum Vroum Mag in the Mares’ Hurdle, run on the first day of the Festival.
Vroum Vroum Mag, winner of this contest last year, will therefore face competition from her stable companion but Mullins is happy to let the eight-year-old son of Voix Du Nord take her chance, in which she will look to emulate Mullins’ superb mare Quevega, who was a phenomenal record six-time winner of the event.
Mullins told the Irish Times: “The mares’ race has been the plan all along for Vroum Vroum Mag and I would imagine that’s where she’ll go.
“She is in the Champion Hurdle, too, and there’s still a week to go so things can change.”
The Rich Ricci gelding has had a mixed season, having finished a short-head second to Apple’s Jade in the Grade One Hatton’s Grace Hurdle at Fairyhouse in December, before registering back-to-back victories at Leopardstown and Doncaster, with the mare winning by a head in the latter contest.
However, with Limini now in the mix for the contest, she shades favouritism at 5/4 with Vroum Vroum Mag a general 7/4 shot, following the news that Limini would not be supplemented at a cost of £20,000 for the Champion Hurdle.
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