Naas Novice Chase Guide

The seven year old gelding has been very lightly raced for his age, being seen twice in bumpers when looking like a nice prospect and only one over hurdles, when again looking like a very likeable type after bolting up by 19 lengths at Gowran.

Mullins decided to send him chasing this season again at Gowran Park and he went on to hose up in a Beginners Chase over 2m4f by 18 lengths.

When analysing the sectional time of that race the numbers look really smart and now it is interesting to see him drop down to, two miles.

He is a horse with bags of potential that is slightly fragile, but from what he has shown so far will be tough to beat.

Blackbow is the second string of Mullins' runners in the race but as we know that is not to be taken lightly with many times the betting not getting it right.

The eight year old has always been a horse with bags of potential performing well in bumpers, over hurdles and now looks as though he is hitting his peak as a chaser.

He made his chase debut in November and got off the mark in bold style when seeing off the likes of Entoucas, Defi Bleu and Alfa Mix in a Beginners Chase.

After that event he was stepped up in class for the Grade One Racing Post Novice Chase at Leopardstown over Christmas and although being heavily backed before the off, suffered a fall early on.

He will be looking to put that behind him, but the yard obviously think a lot of this horse and he could cause an upset.

The five year old did not run in any bumpers and was thrown straight over hurdles last season, showing great signs of speed winning on debut in a 23 runner maiden.

He returned at Punchestown just a month later and finished a narrows second behind the likeable Andy Dufresne for Gordon Elliott in the Grade Two Moscow Flyer Novices Hurdle.

That looked a solid prep run before the Supreme Novices Hurdle where he was still a bit of an unknown entity and at 14/1 was travelling like a dream turning for home.

However, with the race being a mess for the most part he was bought down by Elixir D'ainay who was hampered by stablemate Asterion Forlonge.

He was seen again for the first time on chase debut and although being heavily backed was pulled up with a circuit to go.

He was given some time after that race to find the problem and in December De Bromhead got him back on track and he was an emphatic winner at Punchestown.

That run showed how good he can be and if still on the upgrade is a live player in once more against tougher opposition.

The big outsider of the four runner race is the Elizabeth Doyle trained Farmix, but although being the only double figure priced runner in the race is not without a chance.

The gelding has been a smart horse for the yard, only finishing outside the top two places once in his five outings and it came on debut in his sole bumper.

Having finished second twice on his first hurdle starts, he finally got off the mark in March but was not seen again due to the pandemic.

Doyle decided to send him chasing this term and on heavy ground at Fairyhouse was a game winner of an 11 runner event.

If this horse was trained by one of the big Irish trainers it would not be 25/1, but saying that this horse will have to give a career best performance to see off these talented runners.