Scottish Champion Hurdle winner Anna Bunina also in the mix for Cork’s Easter Sunday card
 

Melon tops the list of entries for the Grade 3 Baroneracing.com Chase at Cork on Easter Sunday, which also includes former Grand National winner Minella Times and Cheltenham Festival winner The Shunter.

Baroneracing are the feature sponsors of the eight-race fixture, lending their support too to the €45,000 Grade B Baroneracing.com Handicap Hurdle over 2m 3f, which has attracted 26 entries, and the two-mile Baroneracing.com Hurdle.

The latter contest has lured 15 entrants and John McConnell reports his Scottish Champion Hurdle-winning mare, Anna Bunina to be a contender. 

Twelve months after finishing second in the race, Caroline Ahearn’s six-year-old filly returned to Ayr on April 2 and was delivered with a well-timed run by Sean Bowen to prevail by a length.

It was a major success for the mare and her in-form trainer, who has been picking up considerable spoils on both sides of the Irish Sea and in both codes in recent months. Anna Bunina well be a prime protagonist if she takes her place in the Baroneracing.com Hurdle.

“We’re tipping along nicely,” said McConnell. “We’ve plenty of horses for the summer so hopefully we can keep it going. “Anna Bunina is great right now. We gave her plenty of time to freshen up after Ayr and she seems fine. We saw this race and I said I’d throw her in it and see what way it turned up and looking at it, she could take her chance.“She loves the better ground at this time of the year. We’ll probably give her an entry in the Swinton in Haydock as sometimes it turns into a small field. So we’re keeping an eye out on opportunities like that for her and I think she would hold her own in mares’ black-type races.  “She’ll get an entry in the Swinton, have a crack at that and then go back to the Flat for the summer, with the ultimate aim being to go back and try and win the Scottish Champion Hurdle again next year. But there’s a good possibility that she will go to Cork first on Easter Sunday. She is in good form.”

Willie Mullins-trained pair Ganapathi and Cash Back would represent stern opposition, as could Gordon Elliott-conditioned Felix Desjy.

Melon is the highest-rated among the 16 entries for the Grade 3 Baroneracing.com Chase. A Grade 2 victor of the Red Mills Chase at Gowran Park in February, the ten-year-old has been just touched off in a slew of Grade 1 races over hurdles and fences. 

Melon and Cilaos Emery represent Willie Mullins, who claimed this prize last in 2015 with On His Own, a Cheltenham Gold Cup runner-up 13 months prior to that.
Last year’s Aintree Grand National winner, Minella Times is an intriguing entry for Henry de Bromhead, who also has Somptueux in the mix. Minella Times had to be pulled up after unfortunately jumping into another horse, Schoolboy Hours at Aintree last Saturday.

Emmet Mullins succeeded de Bromhead as a Grand National-winning trainer and he has given an entry to the 2021 Grade 3 Cheltenham Festival-winning handicap chaser The Shunter, who like Minella Times, is owned by JP McManus.

Noel Meade has Gigginstown House Stud pair, Daly Tiger and Tout Est Permis in the mix, while last year’s winner, Waitnsee could be back to defend her crown, with John Ryan also giving an entry to The Dara Man.

Go Another One has been given an entry by John McConnell.

“It’s one of those, if you’re not in, you can’t win! We can Go Another One an entry but quite a few of the other horses would be better off at the ratings with him, so we’ll have to see closer to the weekend and take a few factors into account, including the ground.”

Tickets can be purchased online in advance on www.corkracecourse.ie to beat the raceday queues and avail of a 10% discount.

A free shuttle bus service is provided from Mallow Train Station and Mallow town. Runners go to post for the first race, the Dermot Casey Tree Care Maiden Hurdle, at 1.10pm.