Willmount delighting Mulholland since exciting debut

Cheltenham and Aintree in the mix for imposing bumper scorer.

Neil Mulholland is eyeing the spring festivals for his exciting bumper horse Willmount.

Bought for GBP 340,000 following an impressive display in the pointing field at Comea in February last year, he went some way to justifying that price-tag when a commanding 13-length scorer on his rules debut at Doncaster earlier this month.

Jamie Moore was motionless aboard the Ollie Harris-owned five-year-old during the closing stages on Town Moor and Mulholland was delighted to see the son of Blue Bresil make a winning start – while also believing the team at Conkwell Lodge are only just beginning to scratch the surface of his potential.

He said: “He’s a nice horse who has come out of the race really well and we’re hoping he’ll have come on for the race as well.

“I’ll have to speak to the owner, but we’ll be looking at the likes of Cheltenham and Aintree and places like that.

“Everything of course has to be good and go well and we’re hoping he’ll be a nice novice hurdler next year. But if he keeps on improving the way he is we’ll definitely be at the likes of Cheltenham and Aintree – that’s what the owner buys these horses for, he wants to be at the big meetings.

“He’s a nice horse to get and thankfully his first run lived up to expectation. Now he has to obviously step up again, but we would be more than confident there is hopefully more to come. He definitely wasn’t drilled for his bumper at Doncaster.”

The decision on if Willmount will run again before the spring is yet to be finalised with a Listed bumper at Newbury on February 11 a possibility. Although Mulholland appears to be favouring heading straight to the Champion Bumper on March 15 – a race for which he is a best price of 25-1 with bet365, but as short as 14-1 in places.

“I would suspect he would go straight there,” continued Mulholland.

“We don’t want to be overracing him and he’s backwards enough. It’s long-term we want this horse for so we’ll do what is right for the horse.

“We could go for a bumper at Newbury in the middle of February, but then you’ve only got four weeks to get over that to go to Cheltenham.”

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