Dinoblue will take her final Cheltenham Festival prep in Saturday’s BBA Ireland Ltd Opera Hat Mares Chase (Listed) at Naas, with Willie Mullins using the same route that delivered last year’s double: Opera Hat success followed by Mares’ Chase glory at the Festival.
The market has already made the point for March. Dinoblue sits as short as 6-4 with some firms to defend her Mares’ Chase crown, and Naas is expected to be a maximum six-runner assignment that allows Mullins to sharpen rather than stretch her. He has won the Opera Hat eight times since 2016, and the message from Closutton is usually blunt: turn up fit, jump clean, get out.
That doesn’t mean this is a public gallop. A small field can turn tactical, and Dinoblue’s edge is her ability to travel with purpose while still meeting a fence on a stride — the sort of rhythm that wins at Cheltenham when rivals start clobbering the third-last under pressure. Any scruffiness at Naas would land loudly with punters because this is being sold as the last piece of work before the Festival.
Decent field of mares set to take on Dinoblue this weekend
Gavin Cromwell’s Bioluminescene rates the obvious threat on paper at 142, a Grade 2 winner at Limerick at Christmas the year before last and a mare who wants it soft. If Naas rides deep, she can force Dinoblue to engage earlier than Mullins would prefer, and that’s where the race stops being a box-tick and starts asking a question about match fitness and late-race resilience.
The five-day stage entries also include Break My Soul (Ian Donoghue), Je T’Ai Porte, Kilbarry Saint, The Great Nudie and Uhavemeinstitches, but the framing stays the same: Dinoblue’s job is to jump, travel and leave with her confidence intact.