Nap of the Day: Starcrossed Lover can hold off the Mullins raider

We have a quiet Wednesday on our hands this week, with just three meetings taking place across Britain and no Irish representation.

Haydock and Huntingdon provide the jumping action in the afternoon and Southwell's eight-race all-weather card taking us through the evening. We’ve picked out our Nap of the day and the horse in question is set to take on a Willie Mullins-trained Irish raider at Haydock.

15:20 Haydock Odds

Neil Mulholland is ticking along nicely at the moment, with a healthy strike-rate of 23 per cent in the last fortnight. He has six winners from 26 runners during this period and STARCROSSED LOVER could be set to add to that tally on Wednesday.

This son of Pillar Coral ran twice in Ireland for Colm Murphy, finishing third in a Downpatrick bumper after a runners-up showing in a Punchestown maiden hurdle before that.

After making the switch in December, he produced a winning start to life at the Mulholland yard, scoring comfortably in a maiden at Windsor.

There was lots to like about the performance that day. It was an extremely professional display as he pulled nicely clear to win by three-and-a-half lengths from Nicky Henderson's La Pinsonniere.

While the form is a bit of a mixed bag, a few subsequent winners have come out of it, which certainly bodes well.

Starcrossed Lover was even more impressive when following up under a penalty at Hereford next time and the extra weight made no difference, as he scooted clear to win by 17 lengths from Ben Clarke's Renoir with never a moment’s worry.

Connections tried stepping him up in grade at Kempton after that, in the Grade 2 Dovecote Novices’ Hurdle.

The occasion got to the six-year-old and he was far too keen in the early stages and stopped very quickly as a result when they turned for home.

It’s easy enough to forgive that effort and as his sights have been lowered here, for what looks like a good opportunity to get back on track.

Willie Mullins' Jarrive De Mee is the likely favourite but Starcrossed Lover's rating of 129 arguably makes him the one to beat in this 1m7½f contest.

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