Colin Keane booked for The Mourne Rambler’s Champion Bumper bid

Colin Keane and Noel Meade will break new ground when they link up with The Mourne Rambler in the Weatherbys Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival.

The six-time Irish champion Flat jockey has been a regular ally to Meade on the level over the years, winning the Tattersalls Gold Cup together with Helvic Dream in 2021 and also teaming up for Group-level success with Layfayette.

However, now the Castletown handler will give the Juddmonte number one the leg-up for the first time at National Hunt’s showpiece occasion believing he will be more than capable of holding his own in a race which is notorious for it’s rough-run nature.

Meade said: “Colin rides a lot for me on the Flat and he rides work for me once a week, so it looked a natural fit to have the best Flat jockey riding for you in a bumper.

“Colin will be hardy, he wouldn’t be a Frankie Dettori. He comes from a National Hunt background, he’d have been jumping and riding horses since he’d been able to walk. He’d be hardier than a lot of the jockeys you would come across from the Flat.

“I was very pleased to be able to put him up on the horse, he rode him out the the other day and we are very happy with him. He rode him in work the other day so everything went well.”

Meade has gone close to winning the Champion Bumper in the past with the likes of Corskeagh Royale who chased home Cousin Vinney in 2008, with this year’s contender winning impressively on his rules debut at Leopardstown over the Christmas period.

The Mourne Rambler is a general 16-1 chance in the betting for this year’s event which is headed by Willie Mullins’ Love Sign d’Aunou, and Meade is optimistic of a bold show.

Meade added: “We never really tried him that hard before he went to Leopardstown – he had a trail run about two weeks before and it went fair well – so we were fairly confident going there.

“Everything, touch wood, has gone well ever since so I think he’s a horse who should handle himself.

“Obviously it’s going to be a very good race, a lot of horses with chances, but we certainly have a fighting chance anyway.

“I think he handles the ground. He handled the soft ground at Leopardstown, I don’t really care what the ground’s like as long as it doesn’t dry up too much.

“I wouldn’t say he’s a slow horse anyway. He’s not a huge, big horse either, but he’s light-framed and I think for that reason, the ground shouldn’t be a factor.”