Robert Waley-Cohen hails ‘incredibly imaginative’ training of Noble Yeats by Emmet Mullins as team mull Stayers’ Hurdle jockey

Robert Waley-Cohen has hailed the “incredibly imaginative” training by Emmet Mullins that has led to his 2022 Grand National hero Noble Yeats becoming a leading contender for this month’s Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle, with connections mulling over who will ride the 8-1 shot.

Noble Yeats had just his second run over hurdles – and first since March 2021 – when runner-up to Sa Majeste at Limerick in December, and advertised his Stayers’ Hurdle credentials with a neck win over Paisley Park under Harry Cobden in the Cleeve Hurdle at Cheltenham on Trials day in January.

A return to hurdling came following a busy spring campaign, including a 15-length fourth behind Galopin Des Champs in last season’s Cheltenham Gold Cup, a fourth in the Grand National and a staying-on seventh in the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris at Auteuil in May.