Mistergif looks potentially smart in Limerick victory

Another name to note for Willie Mullins, Simon Munir and Isaac Souede.

Mistergif continued Willie Mullins’ successful January as well as the hot run of owners Simon Munir and Isaac Souede with an impressive success on his Irish debut at Limerick.

Although banking plenty of experience in France, he arrived at Closutton a maiden, but nevertheless was sent off the 8-13 favourite for the Follow Limerick Racecourse On Twitter (C & G) Maiden Hurdle over two miles on testing ground.

The result was a formality as the five-year-old made all and cruised to an impressive 18-length success in the hands of Kieran Callaghan to give Mullins his fourth straight success in the race and also follow in the footsteps of State Man who was victorious in the 2022 renewal before marching to County Hurdle glory at the Cheltenham Festival.

Mistergif holds entries for both the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and the Baring Bingham Novices’ Hurdle at Prestbury Park and although connections may want to see more before he gets his ticket stamped for March, he brought up Mullins’ 40th winner for the month while adding to the recent victories of Zarak The Brave, Jasmin De Vaux and Anotherway in the ‘double green’ colours.

“He’s a horse by a stallion we like in Zarak,” said Anthony Bromley, racing manager to the owners, who will have the likes of El Fabiolo in action at the Dublin Racing Festival this weekend.

“He jumped very smoothly today, that was impressive the way he jumped. The horse in second was only rated 106, so we must not get too carried away.

“I think he will have to have another run to see where we are and in terms of if he’s a Festival horse or not. But he’s a really exciting prospect and it comes hot on the heels of Anotherway yesterday and the bumper horse on Sunday, so they are just hitting their stride at the right time.

“I don’t think there is any necessarily big targets for him, but we will have to run again and see where we are.”

Winning rider Callaghan added: “It was very straightforward. He had experience around Auteuil and loads of runs on the Flat as well as a younger horse.

“I was just worried that he was doing a bit too much early, but he was very good the way he picked up from the back of the second-last.

“He hit the line hard and I was at the first hurdle down the back pulling him up so it’s definitely a good sign on that ground.

“He couldn’t have done it much easier, and he has a chance of being a nice horse.”

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