EMMET Mullins showed that he can pull off unorthodox training feats in a major way when sending out Noble Yeats in 2022 to become the youngest Grand National winner since 1940, and he’s out to break new ground among Irish trainers in today’s feature event at Kempton.

So many of Britain’s biggest prizes have been conquered by Irish-based handlers - especially in recent times - but the three-mile Ladbrokes Trophy Handicap Chase (3.35) is one that is thought to never have been won by an Irish yard.

Despite being worth a cool £150,000, it is a race in which very few neighbouring runners even tend to line up. Ted and Ruby Walsh finished second in the 2001 edition with Commanche Court (runner-up to Young Spartacus), and no trainer from Ireland has managed to get any closer since. In fact, the most recent to try came all the way back in 2009, when Jimmy Mangan’s Conna Castle finished sixth.

The former Cheltenham Festival-winning rider, turned Cheltenham Festival-winning trainer, is seizing the initiative this weekend, however. He sends not one but two challengers to contest this year’s renewal, including course-and-distance winner Chance Another One.

Slattery Bloodstock Limited’s seven-year-old has been on a dramatic course of improvement since his first win at Ballinrobe off a mark of 91 last July. Runner-up at the Galway Festival off 111 on his next start, he hasn’t looked back over fences since; winning at Ballinrobe in August and managing to oblige again on his next appearance in this sphere at Kempton off 124 in November.

While out of luck in his two starts since, he heads back to Kempton this weekend with Donagh Meyler aboard, attempting to snare a big payday off his career-high mark of 131 - 40lb higher than when he started his campaign.

Bowen booking

Meanwhile, Sean Bowen, who teamed up with Mullins to win with Backmersackme at the Dublin Racing Festival, is a clearly positive booking for another major improver from the stable, Rising Dust.

A winner of five of his seven starts since joining the Grand National-winning team, he has leaped up from a mark of 86 in September to now be running off 127 in his biggest test yet.

Mullins said of his duo: “They’re two good ground horses and it’s a great pot. Chance Another One won at Kempton before Christmas and he goes back there again this weekend. Rising Dust has won five of his last six.

“I don’t know where his ceiling is, but he’s still going the right way. They’ll both be competitive on nice ground. That’s what they’re crying out for.”

Topping the early betting following declarations was last year’s winner Katate Dori, trained by Sam Thomas (now 11lb higher than when bolting up by 15 lengths in 2025). While Nacarat managed to win the race twice in 2009 and 2012, the only horse to win back-to-back runnings of the race (formerly known as the Racing Post Chase) is Docklands Express in 1991 and 1992.