….Patrick Mullins;
Mullins told Sporting Life: "It was (easy) for
Gameofinches, it's what we thought he'd do. I was a touch worried going to the start but we ended up settling in, which was great.
"He's a fine, big horse - he's 16.3hh - and he only came here in late-November which is never easy to do as we like to give horses plenty of time to settle in. Which is why we're getting him out as late as we are.
"Obviously the meeting got put back, which isn't ideal, but Cousin Vinny won at Punchestown on the Wednesday this week and went and won the Champion Bumper 22 days on, as the Wednesday that year was put back a day so he got 22 days.
"This fella has won on the Thursday so he's got 20 days. It's not ideal but it can be done and the fact that he's a six-year-old who has had two point-to-point runs and now a bumper, is a little bit different perhaps to a horse that's had their first ever run.
"We don't think he's short of gears, normally I like to give them a squeeze and teach them to quicken but because the race was so close to Cheltenham, I was very conscious of giving him as easy a race as we could.
"So I didn't get to really open him up and perhaps that is a little negative as well. But we've done it at home and we think he's not just a galloper, he has a turn of foot, and there probably hasn't been too many horses with his size and scope that won the Champion Bumper - you're probably looking at something like Florida Pearl. Facile Vega was as tall but maybe not as wide.
"He definitely has the ability to win the Champion Bumper, we'll have to see how he comes out of the race over the next week or 10 days but that's where we'd like to get him."