Willie Mullins plots novice chasing campaigns for Gaelic Warrior and Fact To File

Gaelic Warrior has headed the betting for the Stayers' Hurdle since winning the Irish Mirror Novice Hurdle by ten lengths at the Punchestown Festival but the five-year-old now looks set for a switch to chasing instead.

Speaking as part of an exclusive stable tour with Sporting Life, Mullins said: "We'll aim him for a beginners' chase and he looks like a sort of Brown Advisory horse - he's all stamina, jumps well, fine big stamp of a chaser. We'll start off in a beginners' chase somewhere and hopefully make our way to Cheltenham.

"I'm always keen to go chasing at this age rather than stay hurdling. If he doesn't take to fences - which he should, I'm not worried about him taking to fences - he can always go back to the Stayers' Hurdle route. To me he's a made novice chaser."

Another horse who looks set to join Gaelic Warrior in the novice chase division is Champion Bumper runner-up Fact To File.

Mullins said: "Fact To File is a horse I really like and I thought he ran a cracker in the Cheltenham bumper. He could go novice hurdling but I feel he should go novice chasing. He looks a real jumping type and at his age - he's six turning seven - I just feel he might be as well off going jumping.

"He has everything you'd want in a chaser - size, scope, temperament - and for me he's one who could make up into a real top-class chaser."

The switch straight to chasing from bumpers, bypassing a novice hurdle campaign, is a tactic Mullins memorably used with Florida Pearl who won eight times at the highest level over fences, including four Irish Gold Cups and a King George.

Mullins added: "We've done it with very few horses since Florida Pearl but this horse has the size, scope and temperament to take a chance and his age is a real reason why I want to go, it's a big factor. I think he's a real chaser so I'm keen to get him over jumps."

The first part of Sporting Life’s stable tour with the 17-time Irish champion jumps trainer will be available on Sportinglife.com on Sunday. Mullins will also be providing a weekly column, providing insight on his runners, during the core of the jumps season.

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