Gameofinches impressed jockey Patrick Mullins when making a successful start to life under Rules on Thursday.
The son of Blue Bresil, trained by the amateur rider’s father Willie, was snapped up by Prof. Caroline Tisdall after winning a point-to-point at Dromahane in November and barely came off the bridle to justify cramped odds on his first bumper start at Punchestown.
His jockey, who has won the Weatherbys Champion Bumper a record four times on Cousin Vinny (2008), Champagne Fever (2012), Facile Vega (2022) and Jasmin De Vaux last March, feels the strapping six-year-old has all the tools to be highly competitive at the Cheltenham Festival just 20 days on from his introduction.
Mullins told Sporting Life: “It was (easy) for