Maughreen Ruled Out of Cheltenham Festival

Trained by Willie Mullins, the promising five-year-old became a top contender for the Champion Bumper following an impressive 11-length victory in her first race at Punchestown in January.

Maughreen won't be participating in this month's Cheltenham Festival due to a minor issue, as stated by her ownership group.

Trained by Willie Mullins, the promising five-year-old became a top contender for the Champion Bumper following an impressive 11-length victory in her first race at Punchestown in January.

However, the progeny of a mare related to the 2015 Champion Hurdle victor Faugheen, won't be competing at Prestbury Park. This was confirmed on Friday by her owners, the Closutton Racing Club, through a message on X, previously known as Twitter:

"Regrettably, Maughreen has encountered a minor issue, thankfully it's nothing serious and we're grateful to our team for managing the situation. Consequently, Maughreen will be absent from Cheltenham."

Despite this setback, Mullins, who has claimed the title 12 times and has been particularly successful in recent years, still has several hopefuls for this year's event, among them Jasmin De Vaux, a victor at Naas, and You Oughta Know, who was the runner-up to Jeroboam Machin at the Dublin Racing Festival.

In other Mullins-related news, Willie Mullins' Ballyburn looks set for a late Cheltenham Festival switch with his Supreme odds easing following a surge of bets being placed on Ballyburn to run in Wednesday's Baring Bingham Novices' Hurdle. His odds have been reduced to as low as 2.04 for that event on the Betfair Exchange.

Willie's son, Pattrick, commented:

"Ballyburn could go either way – he's not your natural two-miler, but was neither Champagne Fever and ridden appropriately, he won the Supreme.

"Vautour wasn't really a two-miler and ridden appropriately, he won it too.

"But like Sir Gerhard, Ballyburn could go two and a half miles. I think he's good enough to win either race.

"Mystical Power is not a natural jumper – he is a Galileo and they probably often aren't.

"He can race quite keenly and funnily enough that two and a half mile race, they end up going quite slow in it the last couple of years. I don't know about him running keen there.

"To me he looks like a Supreme horse as he'll travel and I think his jumping will improve as that was his first run over conventional hurdles.

"This will be his first run over white hurdles, but I suppose the fact that he's a JP horse, Mark (Walsh) is going to ride him and Willie's not going to be trying to split them up to get Paul (Townend) on both of them and that's probably a factor as well."

This will be a poignant renewal for the Mullins family, with this year's National Hunt Chase being renamed in honour of the late Maureen Mullins, Willie Mullins' mother and the patriarch of the Mullins dynasty.