Who’s afraid of Willie Mullins? Pretty well every other trainer and certainly the bookies who made his French import Ocastle Des Mottes a 7-2 hot favourite for the Betfair Hurdle – which is the richest event of its kind run in Britain – at Newbury on Saturday. You can see why. The ever-courteous Mullins holds the record for the most winners trained in a season by an English or Irish trainer at 245 and the most Grade One victories in a season at 34. No one has trained more than his 94 winners at the Cheltenham Festival.
On Cheltenham Trials Day a fortnight before, being more concerned with the then oncoming Dublin Racing Festival, Willie sent over just two horses. His Lossiemouth produced the performance of the day in winning the mares’ race and Capodanno, well down the pecking order at Closutton, was untroubled in winning the Grade Two Cotswold Chase.
‘He’s a character like all good horses but we’re in control of him now and he’s behaving our way, not his’
Then came the Dublin Festival where – despite the best efforts of Gordon Elliott, Henry de Bromhead and his other domestic rivals – Willie Mullins achieved the remarkable feat of winning all eight Grade One races over the two days. As I write, horses he trains are favourites for 16 of the 28 races at the Cheltenham Festival, including the Gold Cup with last year’s impressive winner Galopin Des Champs.
There is no shadow of doubt that he is a brilliant trainer, with an unmatched team of spotters keeping the equine talent coming. But racing is a numbers game in which success breeds success and in those eight Grade One races at the Dublin Festival more than half of the 52 runners – 30 to be precise – had arrived at the course from Willie Mullins’s yard.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in