Willie Mullins reveals his Cheltenham Festival ‘banker’ as horse is labelled best Irish novice in 50 years ...Middle East

WILLIE MULLINS says Supreme hotpot Kopek Des Bordes is his Cheltenham Festival banker.

The champion trainer was ‘blown away’ when the five-year-old romped to victory at the Dublin Racing Festival on Sunday.

And he revealed Ted Walsh phoned him up the day after to wax lyrical about the horse, comparing him to the brilliant but ill-fated Irish novice Golden Cygnet.

Mullins said: “The performance blew my mind, to be honest with you, because it was a field with plenty of strength in depth.

“They were good horses and he just dominated them, Paul Townend said the horse nearly ran away with him three times in the race but he still had more than enough in the tank to pull away after the last.

“Ted Walsh rang me to say it was the best performance from a novice he had seen since Golden Cygnet, which is pretty huge for him to feel the need to pick up the phone and tell me that.

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“He wouldn’t phone me very often, so I was pretty taken aback, I think it was a huge statement.”

Kopek Des Bordes is a top-price even-money for the Festival curtain raiser on March 11.

Mullins added: “He came out of the race at Leopardstown in great shape. If you were to ask me for our banker of the week it would have to be him, it’s hard to pick any holes in him.”

Mullins also confirmed that his other hugely exciting novice hurdler, Final Demand, would go for the Turners’ Novices Hurdle at the Festival.

He bolted up at the Dublin Racing Festival and the Albert Bartlett had been mooted as a possible target.

He said: “The Albert Bartlett wouldn’t be a race I’d want to go for with him. He’s only had two runs, and I’d like a horse who started earlier in the season for that one.

“I think it’s a tough race on horses for the rest of their career and I don’t think he needs that. I think two miles five on that track at Cheltenham in the Turners, up that hill, is very tough on a horse and that would be a big enough question to ask him at this stage.

“Looking at him, he looks a real chaser. He must be 17.2, he’s as strong as any horse I’ve had.

“Strength wise, he probably looks more like Florida Pearl, he’s so strong through the body whereas Galopin Des Champs is a very different type of horse, he’s much more evenly balanced through the body and a lighter framed individual.

“This fellow is a big unit and I’m happy to do that (the Turners) before going novice chasing next season.”

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