I WOULDN’T like to have to make the difficult choices Willie Mullins is facing about which of his horses to run in the various novice hurdles at Cheltenham. He has so many strong contenders in each race and they’re so unexposed it’s hard to know exactly which races to target.

Mullins’ toughest decisions are surely going to come in the Neptune Novices Hurdle where he has no less than 24 entrants, 15 of which look solid candidates.

If you forced me to make a choice however I’d come down in favour of Outlander (40) being the best chance Mullins has of winning the Neptune, following the horse’s impressive Grade 2 win at Leopardstown two weeks ago.

Outlander was always moving well at Leopardstown, lobbing along in fifth. He moved through smoothly to lead running up to the last and was going so well jockey Paul Townend was able to take a look across at his rivals on touching down.

RIVALS COOKED

He saw that he had his rivals cooked and only needed to keep Outlander going to score with a good deal in hand. I’m sure he could have increased his winning margin by several lengths if he’d been pressed.

Outlander seemed to find the three miles just a bit too far on his previous outing and presumably incurred the leg injury that kept him off for 19 months when sixth in the Champion Bumper at Punchestown. He’s won his other five starts under rules.

There are a few horses in the Neptune as fast as Outlander on my ratings. He has the most potential for improvement and looks set to be ideally suited by the distance.

The runner-up Martello Tower (39) had narrowly beaten Outlander over three miles but was outpaced and outclassed by him over two and a half miles here. Back over longer he has to rate one of the top contenders for the Albert Bartlett.