He won’t make his mind up until he has to, but Willie Mullins must decide where to run Ballyburn at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival.
The Irish raider is a leading contender, according to horse racing betting sites, for both the Grade 1 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle on the opening day of the meeting and the Baring Bingham over a longer distance.
Where Will Ballyburn Run At Cheltenham?
Ballyburn holds entries in those two races come the Festival. Will it be the major meeting’s traditional curtain-raiser over two miles on Tuesday, 12 March or the first race 24 hours later where he lines up?
Going strictly on pedigree, the six-year-old son of Flemensfirth out of an Old Vic mare, you could understand why connections might favour the 2m 5f Grade 1 Baring Bingham over the Supreme. Master handler Willie Mullins has won the Style Wednesday opener at Cheltenham four times in the last decade including with Faugheen, Sir Gerhard and Impaire Et Passe 12 months ago.
The stable boasts a similar record in the Supreme to the Baring Bingham too with Vautour, Douvan and Klassical Dream among those successful. Ballyburn is widely regarded as the best novice hurdler in the UK and Ireland, so where he shows up at Cheltenham is significant.
Running in the silks of majority owner Ronnie Bartlett, you may recognise these famous colours by jockeys on current horse racing stars in training such as current Ryanair Chase favourite Banbridge and Cross Country contender Galvin.
Which Horses Could Ballyburn Face?
Dangers in either potential Cheltenham race lay both within and outside the Closutton yard of Mullins. Ballyburn suffered his sole career defeat in a 2m maiden hurdle at Fairyhouse in December by Gordon Elliott’s FIREFOX, who holds a Supreme entry and has ante post betting odds of 10/1 for that.
Although he went on to win over two-and-a-half miles next time out, Ballyburn took his form to a whole new level with Grade 1 success at the Dublin Racing Festival down in trip. Paul Townend steered him to a facile seven-length success.
🚀 Lovely prospect
Ballyburn tastes G1 honours with a smooth performance in the Tattersalls Ireland 50th Derby Sale Novice Hurdle @LeopardstownRC pic.twitter.com/61FzMdcTLA
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) February 4, 2024
Since his Leopardstown successes, TULLYHILL has emerged as a danger to Ballyburn after an impressive win in a competitive Listed event at Punchestown. The yard also has MYSTICAL POWER, the blueblood son of Galileo and Annie Power, who notched a Grade 2 success in the Moscow Flyer in January.
Money speaks all languages and with just a few weeks to go until action at Cheltenham gets underway, Ballyburn is favoured to head to the Supreme (3.2 on the Betfair Exchange) instead of the Baring Bingham (3.7).
It all comes down to how much they rate Tullyhill’s hopes of coming out on top against the likes of Firefox or JERIKO DU REPONET.
The decision on where to send Ballyburn is a topic dominating conversations surrounding the festival in the build-up and this saga could well stretch to the final declarations.
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