Willie Mullins sets sights on Thousand Stars hat-trick in French Champion Hurdle

Thousand Stars has spent much of his career in the shadow of stable companion Hurricane Fly but will attempt to secure a piece of racing history in Paris this Sunday when targeting a hat-trick of wins in the French Champion Hurdle.

The Willie Mullins-trained grey is among half a dozen horses that have won the Grande Course De Haies D’Auteuil in back-to-back years during the last five decades and will return to the famous Auteuil track for a three-in-a-row bid if pleasing Mullins in his final work-outs.

Ireland’s champion trainer has four entries among the 20 horses remaining in the €370,000 feature which Mullins has already won four times. As well as Thousand Stars, he scored back-to-back wins with Nobody Told Me (2003) and Rule Supreme (2004.) Thousand Stars could be joined this time by Zaidpour as well as the Graham Wylie-owned pair of On His Own and Cheltenham festival winner Back In Focus.

“At the moment they could all go but I want to see how they work before saying for definite,” said Mullins yesterday. “But Thousand Stars always runs well in the race and I would imagine it would be hard for Ruby (Walsh) to get off him.”

Thousand Stars fluffed his prep lines in last month’s Prix La Barka when finishing only fourth to the Paul Nicholls-trained Celestial Halo who is also due to line up on Sunday. But Mullins is willing to forgive the horse that effort.

“The race was run in a storm and the ground turned very sticky. He showed at Navan earlier in the year he can’t handle those conditions at all so I hope it isn’t as bad this time,” he said.

As well as Celestial Halo, and another English hope, Reve De Sivola, Thousand Stars will have to overcome a potent challenger from closer to home as Charles Byrnes and Davy Russell team up for Cheltenham and Aintree hero Solwhit who was dramatically withdrawn at the start of a race at Punchestown due to blood being found in his nose.

'Pretty adaptable'
Solwhit will be a first runner at Auteuil for Byrnes and the Co Limerick trainer doesn't believe inexperience around the track will be an issue for his stable star.

“He’s pretty adaptable so I wouldn’t imagine it will be a big problem,” said Byrnes. “It’s a big pot and once he missed the race at Punchestown we always had it in mind. He’s been on the go a good while but he can have a long break after. He won’t be seen again this side of Christmas.”

Mullins could also be heavily represented in Sunday’s other Grade One at Autueil, the €270,000 Prix Alain Du Breil, the French version of the Triumph Hurdle.

Among a trio of entries, he has left in Blood Cotil, who won at the track last month in a warm-up and Diakali, while Sabrina Harty’s Dalasiri is also among the 18 possibles for a race won by the Irish-trained Strangely Brown in 2005.

There could also be Irish steeplechase interest at Auteuil on Sunday with the Ted Walsh-trained Seabass figuring in the Grade Two Prix Des Drags, worth €240,000 which is run over almost two-and three-quarter miles.

This evening’s domestic action is all-flat at Fairyhouse and a win for Sleeping Beauty in the 10-furlong fillies maiden will be job done for Dermot Weld.

A daughter of Oasis Dream and Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Nightime, Sleeping Beauty secured black type at Navan last time when belying 25 to 1 odds to be placed behind Alive Alive Oh. A winning bracket will only add to the value of a filly owned by the trainer’s mother.

Aidan O’Brien’s newcomer in the first, Wonderfully, is a sister to Mars. The trainer has used Fairyhouse in the past to unveil decent juveniles.

Forecast fast ground could be crucial to Runway Girl landing the first leg of the 10-furlong handicap. The daughter of Dansili was winless for Roger Charlton and was sold for just 3,000 guineas during the winter but is now with Jim Bolger and faces a different surface this evening to her Irish debut.