Ballyburn's victory in the Alanna Homes Champion Novice Hurdle at Punchestown is highly anticipated, as even Willie Mullins expressed his surprise at how easily the horse won at Cheltenham.
Mullins was refusing to get carried away by the Ballyburn hype, even though he had defeated Slade Steel, the eventual Supreme Novices' Hurdle winner, by seven lengths at the Dublin Racing Festival.
Ballyburn faces just five opponents, three of whom are stablemates, but his 13-length victory in the Gallagher Novices' Hurdle forced Mullins to acknowledge that Ballyburn "could be anything."
Jimmy Du Seuil, who finished second to Ballyburn at Cheltenham but only fourth at Aintree, Mirazur West, who skipped both Cheltenham and Aintree, and Predators Gold are his stablemates who will be facing him.
Patrick Mullins, assistant trainer to his father, said: “Willie has decided to keep Ballyburn at the intermediate distance. He won at the Festival last year when he beat Dancing City and Slade Steel, two Grade One winners. That was quite a strong bumper, ironically, as it wasn’t the Champion Bumper! He should be very difficult to beat again. We’ve been delighted with him since Cheltenham and hopefully, he can finish his season out on top.”
He further added: “This season hasn’t been straightforward for Mirazur West and he seems to be slightly better going right-handed but at this distance, he would need to settle a lot more effectively than he has been. Predators Gold was below-par in Cheltenham, but we do think he’s much better than that and he could be an interesting outsider. I would think he’s overpriced as an each-way option and he is a Festival winner already, as he won the Goffs Defender Bumper last year.”