Hedgehunter heading straight for Aintree
The nine-year-old returned to winning form on his last start when tackling fences for the first time this season at Fairyhouse.
Hedgehunter had failed to score in five starts over hurdles but he bounced back to his best when beating Pizarro in the Bobbyjo Chase.
Mullins now plans to go straight to the National, a race in which he fell at the last fence 12 months ago when in third place having led for much of the way.
“He’s in good form and he won nicely at Fairyhouse the other day. I didn’t expect him to win and I think that was his first Graded win,” said the trainer.
“He seems to have improved. I won’t run him between now and then, I might give him a pop in a schooling hurdle or something like that, but I was delighted with how he jumped and April 9 will be our next day out.”
Hedgehunter is a best-priced 14-1 with William Hill for the Aintree marathon.
Meanwhile, Enda Bolger has his sights on a lucrative cross-country double this spring with his veteran performer Spot Thedifference.
A £50,000 bonus is up for grabs for the connections of a horse that can win both the Sporting Index Handicap Chase at Cheltenham and the La Touche Cup at Punchestown.
Spot Thedifference took the latter race last season and has already snapped up two cross-country events at Cheltenham this winter.
“We’ll see how goes next week but Punchestown is definitely on the cards,” said the Limerick trainer yesterday.
However, Bolger insists that the 12-year-old, owned by JP McManus, has a tough task on his plate at Cheltenham.
“It looks as though he’ll have top weight there, so it’s not going to be easy,” he said.
“He’s in good nick, though. He’s been out hunting and we’ve just kept him ticking over since his last race over hurdles at Navan.”
Spot Thedifference is also in the John Smith’s Grand National in which he finished fifth last April.
But no decision about Aintree has yet been made.
“That’s to be discussed. We’ll see how he gets on at Cheltenham next week first,” added Bolger.
