Outlander finally snapped Willie Mullins’s winning streak in the Grade One races at Leopardstown this week in the Lexus Chase on Wednesday, but Ireland’s champion trainer should take at least one of the main events on the final afternoon of the meeting, which would leave him with five out of seven Grade Ones in just four days.
Mullins’s brilliant hurdler Faugheen, the 2015 Champion Hurdle winner, was entered for Thursday’s Ryanair Hurdle but did not make it past the final declaration stage. He has a very able deputy, however, in Nichols Canyon (2.30), who will start at odds-on and should beat a sub-standard field for a Grade One race with some ease.
Related: Horse racing tips: Thursday 29 December
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