'He had quite a reputation' - well-touted Teeshan set for Champion Bumper entry after impressive debut win

The ante-post betting for the Weatherbys Champion Bumper suggests Britain will once again face a powerful Irish challenge, but Paul Nicholls is intending to enter the well-touted Teeshan on the back of his debut win at Exeter last week.

Teeshan joined Nicholls with a big reputation having been bought privately following a 41-length success in a point-to-point at Loughanmore in October, a performance described as "brilliant" by Derek O’Connor when pinpointing him as one of his three horses to follow from the four-year-old crop in our Irish point-to-point weekly supplement in December.

The son of Westerner justified odds-on favouritism when scoring by seven lengths at Exeter on Sunday and is now towards the head of the Champion Bumper market at a best-priced 8-1 with Betfair Sportsbook.

Only four horses are a shorter price than Teeshan with the firm and they are trained in Ireland, with Willie Mullins responsible for 5-1 favourite Jasmin De Vaux and 7-1 shot Maughreen, while Gordon Elliott trains 11-2 second favourite Jalon D’Oudairies and 7-1 chance Romeo Coolio. Ireland have won the last seven runnings.

Nicholls said: “Teeshan won nicely, although it’s hard to know what sort of race it was. He cantered round and won well. I’ve won two other bumpers at Exeter this season with Quebecois and Joyau Allen and I would argue they were probably just as impressive as he was.

“He had quite a reputation because he won his Irish point-to-point very well and he can’t have made a better start than what he did the other day. He’ll have an entry in the Champion Bumper.

“It took him a while to acclimatise and come right when he joined us from Ireland in the autumn, so I just want to make sure he's right. If he doesn’t go to Cheltenham, he’ll undoubtedly go to Aintree.”

Quebecois is a 25-1 shot for the Champion Bumper with bet365 and another possibility for the race for Nicholls, who saddled last year’s third Captain Teague for Teeshan’s owner Johnny de la Hey. Entries for the race close on Tuesday week.

Weatherbys Champion Bumper (5.30 Cheltenham, March 13)
Betfair Sportsbook: 5 Jasmin De Vaux, 11-2 Jalon D'Oudairies, 7 Maughreen, Romeo Coolio, 8 Teeshan, 9 You Oughta Know, 10 Cantico, 12 The Yellow Clay, 14 bar

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