ANOTHER massive weekend lies in store in the battle for the British National Hunt trainers’ championship, as Willie Mullins sends out a six-strong team at Plumpton tomorrow, as well as having eight more entries for Monday’s card at the same venue.

Ebor and County Hurdle winner Absurde is the star attraction from Closutton in the £75,000 feature BetGoodwin Sussex Champion Hurdle Handicap Hurdle (4.05), with Harry Cobden’s sublime Scottish National-winning ride on Captain Cody enough to keep him high in the Mullins riding plans this weekend.

Nico de Boinville has been enlisted to ride Irish Champion Hurdle runner-up Daddy Long Legs in the two-mile contest, while Sam Twiston Davies has his third ride for Mullins in Britain aboard Tounsivator.

Mr Escobar (Kieran Callaghan) and King Alexander (Nico de Boinville) will attempt to take home a share of the £30,000 on offer in the concluding Phoenix Cycles Remember Ray Prior Handicap Hurdle (5.15) over an extended two and a half miles.

The only time that the dual champion trainer has had a runner at Plumpton came last month, when 1/8 hotpot More Coko was turned over in a five-runner novice hurdle on the eve of the Cheltenham Festival.

Patrick Mullins, who rode the stable’s Sussex representative then, is hoping for better fortunes on this weekend’s raid.

“The fantastic prize money on offer is a real credit to everyone at Plumpton,” said the Grand National-winning jockey. “I enjoyed my visit there last month and we are looking forward to sending a team over this weekend.”

Strength in numbers

Dan Skelton is never one to lie down, however, and sent out eight winners in the space of seven days heading into the final week of the season. He has five runners at Haydock, three at Newton Abbot and two at Huntingdon today, while his Plumpton squad is nine-deep for tomorrow’s action.

A key runner for him comes in today’s £100,000 Unibet Middle Distance Veterans’ Handicap Chase (3.15) at Haydock, with Le Milos out to notch a key strike this late in proceedings - especially when it comes in a race where Mullins has no representative.

“We ran him at Aintree [when seventh in a handicap chase on Grand National Day] as we were looking for somewhere where the ground would be best for him,” said Skelton.

“The ground at Haydock will be no problem; he’s won on good ground before, and he’s in good form. He’s running well, and obviously won at Warwick against the veterans [three starts ago], and this is the first time he’s been back against the veterans since that day. Hopefully he’s one of the players in this league and he can go well here.”

As it stands, Skelton is holding onto a narrow £37,523.53 lead over Mullins after a battling week. Ladbrokes, who Skelton is an ambassador to, trimmed him to 3/1 (from 7/2) yesterday to win a first championship, and eased Mullins out to 2/9 (from 1/6). A grandstand finish awaits.