Champion Irish Jumps trainer Willie Mullins is set to send over a small but select crop of Graded & Cheltenham Festival winning jumpers to Royal Ascot this year.
Echos In Rain, a Grade 1 winning mare looks set to take on the boys in the Ascot Gold Cup. Vauban, the 2022 Triumph Hurdle winner who was last seen finishing 2nd to State Man in the Punchestown Champion Hurdle will take his chance in the Cooper Horse Handicap.
Old boy Stratum will try to roll back the years and make it back-to-back wins in the Queen Alexandra Stakes.
Willie Mullins’s final runner of the week will come in the Ascot Stakes where Bring On The Night will look to go one place better than he did last season when only pipped by classy Coltrane.
ECHOES IN RAIN
“She’s in good form, working well and we’re very happy to take our chance. We’re delighted to have one to run in it. She has run well on decent ground before and I hope it won’t be an issue. It will be hard to think she’d have a winning chance, but if she could finish in the first six, it would be a tremendous run.”
Willie Mullins
VAUBAN
“Vauban will probably will go for the mile and six, while Bring On The Night, who was beaten in a four-way finish last year, will probably go back for the same race.”
Willie Mullins
STRATUM
“Hopefully we will have a small team of four or five runners. Stratum, who won there last year, will go for the same race again on the Saturday. We’ll have a small team, but we’re looking forward to it.”
Willie Mullins
