Key Willie Mullins horse suffers alarming drift in Cheltenham Festival ante-post market

A KEY horse Willie Mullins planned to target at the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham has undergone an alarming drift in the market.

It’s For Me was matched as low as 9.6 for the opening race of March’s Festival.

But the Simon Munir and Isaac Souede-owned hurdler was missing from two key entries in the run-up to the biggest week of the year.

It’s For Me, who was fifth in the Champion Bumper last year, won on his debut over hurdles at Punchestown last November.

The six-year-old beat subsequent Grade 1 superstar Caldwell Potter and looked a real talent for the future.

But no entries in Sunday’s Moscow Flyer at Punchestown – won in the past by the likes of Vautour, Douvan, Min and Impare Et Passe – or next month’s Dublin Racing Festival could signal the end of his Festival hopes.

He is now as big as big as 25 on the Betfair Exchange – nearly four times the price of new favourite Ballyburn.

That Mullins inmate could still run in the Ballymore, with his performance in Friday’s Lawlor’s of Naas set to determine his future over two or two-and-a-half miles.

With no entries, It’s For Me could possibly still run at Aintree or Punchestown in April.

But the writing certainly looks on the wall for his Festival hopes.

More to follow.