BOOKIES have quickly removed a £200,000 Willie Mullins horse from their Cheltenham Festival markets.
The genius Irish trainer was said to ‘absolutely love’ five-year-old mare Karma d’Airy.
Owned by the Roaringwater Syndicate, the former French runner was a 16-1 chance for the ultra competitive Mares’ Novice Hurdle.
But she has been pulled completely by Paddy Power after her debut under Mullins at Clonmel on Wednesday.
Sent off 1-2 favourite for a 2m1f maiden hurdle, Karma d’Airy was ridden wide throughout by Paul Townend.
Two flights from home she was being niggled along and ultimately finished third, beaten a whopping 26-and-a-half lengths.
Paddy Power traders decided to remove the horse from their ante-post market on the back of the horror run.
A statement read: “Paddy has taken Karma d’Airy out of the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle as we believe her unlikely to go to Cheltenham.”
Speaking afterwards, Townend said: “I was never happy on her. That’s not her true running.
“I wasn’t getting the feel I thought I’d get from her.”
The defeat will be a bitter pill to swallow for Mullins given he had won four of the past five runnings of the race.
Among those was 2022 winner Dinoblue, who went onto finish ninth in the Mares’ Novice before finishing runner-up on her next two visits to the Festival.
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”Willie Mullins costs punters thousands on 1-100 certainty after incredible end to Naas race ” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6366104212112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]Mullins has farmed the Mares’ Novice, winning it five years in a row from 2016.
But it’s been divvied up between Henry de Bromhead, Harry Fry, Jamie Snowden and Jeremy Scott since then.
Mullins still has the favourite for this year’s renewal in the shape of 5-1 Maughreen.
She hasn’t been seen since winning a bumper by 11 lengths in January but is said to be nearing a return to the track.
He also has 14-1 Baby Kate, who turned over a 1-100 in-running good thing on her most recent performance.
While Karoline Banbo is a 16-1 chance for the same race.