Willie Mullins plans bid for transatlantic glory with Nichols Canyon and Shaneshill

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Ireland's champion jumps trainer Willie Mullins is considering a transatlantic challenge next week with both Nichols Canyon and Shaneshill.

The Graham Wylie-owned pair could run in the Calvin Houghland Iroquois Hurdle in Nashville, Tennessee.

Victory in the race coupled to success in the Ryanair World Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival within a year will earn a $500,000 bonus as part of a scheme announced last year.

Ireland's champion jumps trainer Willie Mullins is considering another bid for glory in America next week 

Both contests take place over three miles, with the Iroquois Hurdle part of the 75th Iroquois Steeplechase fixture on Saturday, May 14.

The 2017 Ryanair World Hurdle, worth at least £300,000 (aprox US$435,000), is provisionally set to take place on Thursday, March 16.

Nichols Canyon is a six-time Grade One winner and finished third in the Champion Hurdle over two miles at The Festival in March behind stable companion Annie Power.

Shaneshill went close to victory at The Festival in March this year when the half-length runner-up in the Grade One RSA Chase over three miles.

Nichols Canyon (right) is one of Mullins' runners planned for the Calvin Houghland Iroquois Hurdle in Nashville

Mullins has yet to saddle a runner in the US but is no stranger to international success, having won Japan's very valuable Nakayama Grand Jump with Blackstairmountain in 2013.

His late father Paddy landed a major prize in the US in 1990, when Grabel won the US$750,000 Dueling Grounds International Hurdle in southern Kentucky near the Tennessee border.

Mullins said: 'I have Nichols Canyon and Shaneshill both nominated for the Iroquois Hurdle Stakes.

'I am not familiar yet with what else is in the race and there a few other things I have to check out, but both horses are well and could potentially go out to the US.

'At the moment, probably Nichols Canyon is the horse we would hope to get out there, if not the two of them.

'I think we need to internationalise Jump racing and so I am happy to support the Brown Advisory Iroquois Cheltenham Challenge.'

Also among the 10 nominations for the race are Demonstrative, a multiple Grade One winner including the 2014 and 2015 renewals of the Iroquois Hurdle.

The entries also include 12-year-old Pierrot Lunaire (Blythe Miller), who landed the Iroquois Hurdle back in 2009.