It is seven weeks since Cheltenham started and National Hunt racing’s spring festival season finishes at Punchestown this week with little sign that fighting on all fronts will in any way affect Willie Mullins’s status as the sport’s epochal figure.
Those 49 days have enabled Mullins to rewrite racing’s record books. Cheltenham had him sweeping past 100 festival winners. At Fairyhouse on Easter Sunday, he broke his record of 237 winners in an Irish jumps season. Grand National glory at Aintree then teed Mullins up to become the first Irish-based trainer to be champion trainer in Britain for 70 years.
Pulling it off meant diverting some of his team to unfamiliar ground such as Ayr for Scottish National glory, as well as outposts such as Ludlow, Ffos Las and Perth en route to Saturday’s triumphant conclusion to the British season at Sandown. Now Mullins eyes the finale to Ireland’s National Hunt campaign and is still able to call on an unparalleled depth of talent.
Any opposition hoping for an overextended slip, akin to Jurgen Klopp or Pep Guardiola in quadruple-chasing mode, is pinning their faith on the lengthiest of longshots. El Fabiolo might otherwise have been expected to line up in Tuesday’s featured €300,000 William Hill Champion Chase but Mullins has simply swapped one likely favourite for another in Dinoblue.
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He might don a trilby rather than a tracksuit but in managerial terms, the Co Carlow-based trainer is pretty much in a league of his own and that applies to any kind of racing. It’s a point all but certain to be underlined this week. Dermot Weld’s 4,377 career winners is a record for any Irish trainer. His 67-year-old colleague is on 4,371 and facing into a festival he dominates perhaps like no other.
It is only three years since Mullins saddled 19 of the Punchestown Festival’s 40 winners. Last year marked 17, a haul that barely raised an eyebrow. His 237 winners for last season in Ireland, generating almost €7.3 million in prizemoney, have already been eclipsed; 247 winners in the current campaign have already generated €5.8 million.
An 18th domestic championship, to go with his British title, has long since been assured and the demoralising thought for Gordon Elliott, Henry de Bromhead and company is that their uphill competitive task looks like becoming even more steep.
Mullins has declared 20 horses for Day One action of a festival where the greatest upset of the week will be if he doesn’t pick up the lion’s share of a €3.5 million prizemoney pot. How attractive such dominance will prove to be for the paying public is interesting although a festival attendance of more than 120,000 in 2023 suggests Punchestown’s appeal is intact.
It included a large 32,208 for the final Family Day session. That was when Grand National-winning trainer Ted Walsh announced he was stepping down from RTÉ punditry, four years after his son Ruby retired from the saddle at Punchestown. However, if Punchestown has become a stage for farewells there remains a status quo to much of the sport’s top level.
Patrick Mullins will be crowned champion amateur rider for the 16th time when the season ends on Saturday. Jody Townend will be champion lady rider for a fourth year running and if her brother Paul is facing a real battle with Jack Kennedy to be champion jockey, then JP McManus’s position as the sport’s biggest owner is already sure to be underlined with a 21st Irish title this week.
McManus’s colours will be carried by Dinoblue in a Tuesday feature that will be marked by Captain Guinness trying to pull off a Cheltenham-Punchestown double in the top two-mile division. A clumsy El Fabiolo and an absent Jonbon were circumstances that conspired to allow him to secure a maiden Grade One success at Cheltenham and following up under Rachael Blackmore would be a popular result.
In comparison, Dinoblue came up short at Cheltenham in the Mares Chase behind another McManus runner in Limerick Lace. The drop back to two miles should suit Dinoblue and armed with a 7lb sex allowance, as well as having WP Mullins next to her name, she shapes as being the sought-after big-race option by most festival fans.
