Al Boum Photo will head a three-strong Willie Mullins challenge for the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris at Auteuil on Sunday.
A dual Gold Cup winner, Al Boum Photo has been seen on three occasions this season, making his standard winning reappearance at Tramore before a respectable sixth in the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Al Boum Photo could join exclusive club
His most recent run saw him finish third to Allaho in the Punchestown Gold Cup and Mullins will now send him to Auteuil hoping he can join an exclusive club that currently houses just Mandarin and The Fellow.
The pair are the only horses in history to have won both the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris. Mandarin achieved the double in the 1960s while The Fellow, who won the 1991 Grand Steeple-Chase, completed his double by winning the Gold Cup three years later.
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Mullins challenge looks strong
Al Boum Photo will be joined in Paris by Burrows Saint and Franco De Port, both strong horses in their own right, but all eyes will rightfully be on the formerly mentioned ten-year-old.
"I think Al Boum Photo deserves to run in a Grand Steeple," said Mullins. "He's a double Gold Cup winner at Cheltenham. It'd be nice if we had a horse that could do both. We've left him in the other race just in case but at the moment we have three runners in the Grand Steeple and they will all run.
"The horses left this morning. Al Boum Photo stays all day, jumps well enough I think and he has a rating that could win it.
"He would certainly have the highest rating [of any horse I've run in the race] and he doesn't have that many miles on the clock so even though he's ten years of age, he's still very fresh and well."
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