Next Mullins star out today

Champion Irish trainer Willie Mullins has brought out several of his top stars this week and most of them (not all!) have duly obliged in impressive fashion. Today we see the chasing debut of Vautour (Ruby Walsh) in the beginners chase at 14.55 CET at Navan. He was the best novice hurdler of all last season, winning championship events at both Cheltenham and Punchestown, and if he can bring the same ability to jumping fences should certainly beat these 15 opponents (of whom Clarcam is the best) easily enough. He is not necessarily a good bet as he will certainly start at long odds-on, as will stable companion Milsean (Bryan Cooper), who has smart bumper form, in the opening maiden hurdle at 13.25.

Navan stages an excellent card - much more interesting than the 2 U.K. Cards at Exeter and Towcester- and the main Event in theory is the Grade Two novice hurdle at 13.55. Unbeaten Free Expression (Gordon Elliott/ Mark Walsh) is clearly the best of his stable´s two runners, but meets better Opposition now. German-bred sang Tiger Needs to improve, while Martello Tower (Mags Mullins/ Adrian Heskin) has the best form, having won 4 of his 5 starts, all on soft ground. However we like best Kauto Grand Mogol (Liz Doyle/ Barry O´Connell), who will probably never be as good as his Star brother, but is not far off Martello Tower on bumper form and now gets 3 lbs.

The Troytown Chase at 15.25 is the big betting race of the day, and this 3 miles handicap with 27 runners is almost impossible to solve, especially with leading trainer Noel Meade saddling 4 runners and top owners McManus and Gigginstown also being multi-handed. Meade´s main jockey Paul Carberry has chosen to partner Pandorama, who has run only 4 times since his Lexus Chase win in 2010, but is very well handicapped on that form. Many punters will be hoping that Sandra Hughes, whose father Dessie died last week, can take this with Nearly Namad (Mark Walsh), who carries JP´s first colours, but we will take a chance on top-weight Colbert Station (Ted Walsh/ Niall Madden), who was third in this last year, and although he has mainly failed to complete since, has been running in top races.