![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/632ca6ef-8db0-401f-9eaf-b24500576483.jpg\")
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The Reverend, winning on the Flat at Haydock under Tom Marquand (centre) in September, has made a smooth transition to hurdling since switching to Willie Mullins’ yard. Photo: Getty Images<\/p>\n
![\"Champion](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/33c44412-d340-4aa7-bed6-5d97e9f25fab.jpg\")
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Champion trainer Willie Mullins has taken over the handling of The Reverend since the owners switched his focus to national hunt. Photo: Inpho<\/p>\n
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The Reverend is bound for the Dublin Racing Festival after a winning hurdles debut having switched from the Flat.<\/p>\n
The five-year-old enjoyed a successful career on the level when based with William Haggas for owners Tony Bloom and Ian McAleavy, after which he left and joined Willie Mullins.<\/p>\n
He made his hurdling bow at Cork last week and was a four-and-three-quarter-length winner under Paul Townend, starting the 4\/11 favourite.<\/p>\n
The win brings the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown into the picture, with the gelding also currently a 25\/1 shot for the Supreme Novices\u2019 Hurdle at Cheltenham later in the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019d jumped very well coming into Christmas when he\u2019d been schooling but he\u2019d been quite free, so we were worried he might pull too hard in the race but Paul Townend said he settled beautifully,\u201d said Sean Graham, racing manager to Bloom.<\/p>\n
![\"Champion](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767817909_583_33c44412-d340-4aa7-bed6-5d97e9f25fab.jpg\")
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Champion trainer Willie Mullins has taken over the handling of The Reverend since the owners switched his focus to national hunt. Photo: Inpho<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a race that was, on paper, very winnable, but he did what was required of him. He jumped around and he seemed to enjoy it as well, Paul said he was always looking for the next hurdle which is a good sign. We\u2019re very happy with him, his next race looks like it will be a two-mile novice at the Dublin Racing Festival \u2013 that\u2019s where we\u2019re aiming now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Reverend has Flat form with Poniros, owned also by Bloom and McAleavy and trained by Mullins to win the Triumph Hurdle on his jumping debut at the Festival last term. He is set to remain a dual-purpose campaigner and has two options for his return to action under the National Hunt code this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cPoniros is going to run either in the International at Cheltenham or the Irish Champion Hurdle the following weekend,\u201d Graham added. \u201cOne of those two races will be his reappearance, based on how he runs we can decide what race \u2013 if any \u2013 to target at Cheltenham.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he doesn\u2019t run up to his weight we may just go back to the Flat with him because he is rated 91 on the Flat, but there\u2019ll be no decision made until he goes either to Cheltenham or Leopardstown.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Reverend, winning on the Flat at Haydock under Tom Marquand (centre) in September, has made a smooth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[51246,288,206464,1071,79,16,15,2805],"class_list":{"0":"post-680679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-cheltenham-festival","9":"tag-horse-racing","10":"tag-paul-townend","11":"tag-racing","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-willie-mullins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115855723660947459","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=680679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}