King Charles teams up with Willie Mullins for Leopardstown runner
King Charles and the Queen are teaming up with the king of horse racing as Willie Mullins will saddle his first runner for His Majesty this week.
Reaching High has been moved to Mullins' stables in Co Carlow and runs in a lady riders handicap at Leopardstown on Friday.
The four-year-old son of Queen Elizabeth II's Gold Cup winner Estimate will be ridden by Jody Townend, sister of Mullins's stable jockey Paul, who rode her first Cheltenham Festival winner in March.
Mullins, the two-time British and 18-time Irish champion trainer, was invited to Windsor Castle for lunch and joined the Royal Procession at Royal Ascot last year.
While the royal racing manager, John Warren, described it 'a bit of fun' the serious purpose behind Friday evening's race is to find out if the gelding has the potential to go to Royal Ascot, scene of his dam's greatest victory, in June for a long-distance handicap before embarking on a jumping career.
Reaching High did not break any records in any of his eight runs for Sir Michael Stoute, who retired at the end of last year, winning once, at Wolverhampton, from eight starts.
'I think the King and Queen are looking forward to having a horse run in Ireland for the first time and this horse might just be a nice prospect that could develop into a National Hunt horse,' Warren told the Nick Luck Daily Podcast.
'He's out of Estimate, a Gold Cup winner, so stamina might be his game. He was trained very well by Sir Michael Stoute last year and when Sir Michael packed up we thought it would be worthwhile looking at who could do a dual-purpose job for him and the Queen.
'The Queen met William on a number of occasions at Cheltenham and thought he was charming and wonderful and keeps having more and more winners the whole time, so the King and Queen were keen to send him to be trained in Ireland.'
Meanwhile, Mullins's flat counterpart, Aidan O'Brien, took the latest step to total annexation of all the major Derby/Oaks trials since the Guineas when Whirl took apart the Tattersalls Musidora Stakes by five-and-a-half lengths at York.
Part-owner Michael Tabor said he thought she was a mile-and-a-quarter filly, and that the Prix de Diane might be more her cup of tea than the Oaks over an extra quarter of a mile.
Jockey Ryan Moore, however, was very complimentary and hinted she could yet be in the mix for Epsom.
'She was very comfortable stepping up to that trip and was impressive,' he said. 'She is very straightforward and wasn't doing a whole lot in front. She's very professional. By Wootton Bassett she could probably do most things.'
On Thursday, O'Brien can complete a unique trials set by winning the Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Dante Stakes with The Lion In Winter, the over-winter Derby favourite and the colt touted as Ballydoyle's best Derby hope.
Tabor said he would not be backing him on Thursday because he had been a bit behind in his work, although he was going well at home now. That, he added, would not stop him backing him in the Derby nearer the time.
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