Legend returns home

It is testimony to the rags-to-riches horse's enduring nature – Mister McGoldrick will be 14 on New Year's Day – that the Sue Smith-trained veteran has still been allotted top weight for today's bet365 Handicap Chase.

And though up-and-coming conditional jockey Shane Byrne will take five pounds off the horse's back, the veteran is still expected to concede weight – and age – to progressive, and well-handicapped, rivals like Howard Johnson's Frankie Figg.

Even this, however, is unlikely to deter Mister McGoldrick who can be expected to put in another battling performance, over his favoured distance of two-and-a-half miles, at a track where he recorded his first victory as long ago as November 2002.

If and when this great horse, bred in Knaresborough and a Cheltenham Festival winner in March 2008, is finally retired by his trainer and Leeds owner Richard Longley, he will surely have a race named in his honour at Wetherby.

"It's a privilege to keep the ride," says Bingley-based Byrne who had expected Mister McGoldrick to be reunited with his regular jockey Dominic Elsworth who has just returned to the saddle from a career-threatening concussion injury.

"He got Dominic going in the sport – and he's done wonders for me, I'll never forget those great spins around Cheltenham last season. He's in grand order, we'll probably lollop along in front, and see what happens. It's his first run of the season, but he will give it his all. Just keep it simple."

Byrne, who has recovered from a crashing fall at Haydock on Wednesday, has formed an effective partnership with the horse, and is keen to take his career to the next level. "A win would be fantastic – but it's a big ask."

In other Wetherby news, it is surely a tip in itself that the great Ruby Walsh plans to make the trip over from Ireland to ride the Paul Nicholls-trained Domtaline in the Weatherbys Bank Wensleydale Juvenile Hurdle.

The three-year-old French-bred made a ruthless British debut earlier this month at Chepstow when he won by an imposing 25 lengths, jumping pretty coolly from the outset.

It was prescient that Nicholls was quick to earmark this Listed heat as the next race for his development.

RACING is mourning Paddy Mullins, 91, who is best remembered for training the mare Dawn Run to win the Champion Hurdle (1984) and the Gold Cup (1986).

No other horse has won both 'blue riband' races – her last gasp Gold Cup victory denied Monica Dickinson's gallant Wayward Lad a deserved Gold Cup for Harewood.

"It's a sad day," said Jonjo O'Neill, who rode Dawn Run in both races. "He was a very nice man, but a very quiet man. He didn't say a lot but when he spoke you listened and took notice. I was proud to have been associated with him."

Retired commentator Sir Peter O'Sullevan, who called home Dawn Run at Cheltenham, added: "He had a great innings and certainly left his mark through his talent and through his personality."