Willie Mullins withdraws nine horses from Thurles card in shock move

Willie Mullins has withdrawn all bar one of his ten runners at Thurles this afternoon.

Citing concerns about the going, the champion trainer has pulled out nine horses, including Appreciate It, Nick Rockett and Embassy Gardens from the feature race.

Foreverwalking is the only one of Cloustton runner's left on the card after he also withdrew Mistergif, Western Diego, Fishery Lane, Baby Kate, Karamoja and Karafon.

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The going at the the Tipperary track is currently described at good, but Mullins seemingly does not want to risk running his horses on unsuitable ground.

It has left small fields for today's card, with the opening three-runner race won by 5/1 shot That's About Right from 2/13 favourite Boldog.

The feature race, the €26,000 Racing TV Steeplechase, has been reduced to a match between Gordon Elliott's Fil Dor, currently priced at 1/33, and the James Fahey trained Hazelhatch Lady, who is 9/1 at the time of writing.

Mullins' sole runner left on the card, Foreverwalking, runs in the Killinan Maiden Hurdle at 1.15pm and looks set to go off an odds-on favourite.

Thurles Racecourse has already had to abandon three national hunt meetings in recent months as a lack of rain has resulted in unsuitable ground for jump racing.

Clerk of the course Lorcan Wyer stated: “We raced last Thursday on good ground and we had 33mm of rain since then but haven’t had the rain that some other parts of the country have had.

"The ground description was never anything but ‘good’: it was ‘good’ at entry stage, at dec’s stage, and we are happy it has held that ‘good’.

“I can understand why someone would be cautious about running a mid-winter type horse and why somebody would take a position on it, but I’m satisfied it is as described and am hopeful the track rides ok.”

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