Mullins favours low-key route to Champion Hurdle for Un De Sceaux

Willie Mullins has kept open the option of maintaining a low-key route to the Champion Hurdle with Un De Sceaux at Navan this Sunday.

Unbeaten in three starts in Ireland since arriving from France, Un De Sceaux is as low as 12-1 in some ante-post lists for the Champion Hurdle after easily winning his first start of the season at Thurles before Christmas at odds of 1-16.

He is part of Mullins’s strong entry for the BHP Irish Champion Hurdle at the end of the month but the trainer has also left him among the ten entries remaining in the €20,000 Follow Navan On Facebook Hurdle this weekend.

The entry also includes Dermot Weld’s Waaheb, a recent winner at Cork, as well as the Cheltenham festival winner Flaxen Flare and the dual-purpose star Foildubh. Mullins has also left in the mare Vicky De l’Oasis.

However the champion trainer said he didn’t immediately want to step up to Grade One level with Un De Sceaux after his 29-length rout at Thurles saying: “We’ll go anywhere with him if we find the right race, but I don’t want to take on the Grade One horses yet.”

Un De Sceaux is part of Mullins's potentially strong hand for the Champion Hurdle in March even if he doesn't as yet have the profile of his better-known stable companions Hurricane Fly and Annie Power.