Willie Mullins (24 February 2022): "I’d rather I had him in better order, to be honest. I brought him away to work recently and I wasn’t happy with him. We were probably a bit hard on him, as we have only got one run into him this season, and maybe the amount of work we gave him backfired slightly. I gave him a few easy days after that work and he looks in a bit better form in the last few days. He usually comes right for Cheltenham, so hopefully he’ll do so again, but I just wish he was in a bit better form."
Willie Mullins (04 November 2021): "I think we’re going to do things differently with him this time around. Last season we set out to give him the same minimalist campaign that had worked so well the previous two years, but it probably wasn’t really the same as he’d had such a long break due to Covid wiping out the end of the 2019/20 season. In fairness to him, he still ran very well in the Gold Cup, but we came away from it feeling that he might have just benefited from a heavier preparation. We are setting out to run him more often this season with the aim of getting to the Gold Cup a fitter horse. Our plans aren’t set in stone for him, but the John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase is a potential starting point for him."
Willie Mullins (22 February 2021): "He’s in great shape. He worked well last week and has a big bit of work coming up this week. He’s uncomplicated and very nice to train. We think he’s in a good position in his preparation. Any time Paul has ridden him work, he’s been happy with him and I’ve been happy with what I’ve seen. We don’t have any negatives with him, and he hasn’t had any setbacks. The only surprising thing is that I thought I had him straighter for Tramore than he was. When I analysed it afterwards, he had such a long break after the Gold Cup last year with no other spring runs that I probably should have done one bit of work with him before Tramore, but he got through it. We learned from that and I think he’s in great shape at the minute."
