Michael O’Leary’s Gigginstown Stud team has said the ball is firmly in Willie Mullins’s court if jump racing’s champion owner and trainer are to join forces again in the upcoming new National Hunt season.
A dramatic conclusion to the 2016-17 campaign at the Punchestown festival on Saturday saw Mullins confirmed as Ireland’s champion trainer for the tenth year in a row following his titanic battle with Gordon Elliott which left the title in doubt up to the very end.
Ultimately Mullins’s prizemoney haul of €4,580,200 for the season in Ireland meant he finished almost €200,000 clear of his rival.
The new National Hunt campaign begins at Down Royal on Monday and Elliott is quickly out of the traps with ten runners. Paddy Power rate his chances of winning a first title in 2018 at 5-2 with Mullins a 2-7 favourite.
If the root of the weekend’s drama is widely regarded to have been last September’s shock decision by O’Leary to remove his 60 horses from Mullins in a dispute over a ten per cent increase in training fees, then the prospect of any summer rapprochement between the two men could be significant.
O’Leary has already said he would be back with Mullins “in a heartbeat” if an agreement on fees can be reached and on Sunday his brother Eddie O’Leary insisted any new deal depends on the trainer.
“It is completely up to Willie Mullins. Our door is always open. It was Willie’s call to let go of the horses and it’s Willie’s call if he wants them back,” he said.
“There is no problem and we have no issue. We have always left the door open and it’s still open.”
O’Leary retained the leading owner crown on Saturday when the ex-Mullins trained Apple’s Jade briefly renewed Elliott’s title hopes with a Grade One success. It was also a 193rd individual winner of the season for Elliott which equalled Mullins’s 2013 record.
Wins for Bapaume and the 20-1 shot Open Eagle in the final six-figure prizes of the season ultimately sealed the deal for Mullins however.
Open Eagle’s victory left Patrick Mullins agonisingly one short of Jamie Codd who won the amateur rider’s championship for the first time by 41 winners to 40. However Eddie O’Leary noticeably heaped praise on the jockey for his stunning four winners in the final two days.
“We’re over the moon for Willie, especially so with the way his son performed over those two days. I thought it was a fantastic thing to see. Patrick rode like a man possessed and won Willie the title. You’d be very proud if your son did the same,” he said.
O’Leary also ruled out any Gigginstown runners in France during the coming weeks and even though they will have a handful of runners at Down Royal the coming summer months will see a comparative lull in their representation.
“The proper horses are going out on their holidays. We’ll keep a few in for the Plate and the Hurdle in Galway but everything else you see in our colours over the next few months will be going to the sales in Doncaster,” he said.
After confirming his position at the top of the pile at home, Mullins is turning his eyes overseas and has indicted his Cheltenham Stayers Hurdle winner Nichols Canyon will travel to Nashville on Saturday week where a $500,000 bonus is up for grabs.
Nichols Canyon finished third in last year’s Iroquois Hurdle but should he win the US prize this time, and add it to his Cheltenham victory in March, he will claim a half million dollar bonus. Nichols Canyon was just beaten by Unwhatimeanharry in a memorable finish at Punchestown on Friday.
