Ruby Walsh: Why is the Dublin Racing Festival so reliant on Willie Mullins?
SEEKING GOLD: Galopin Des Champs is the star attraction on day one of the Dublin Racing Festival and looks set to outclass his rivals in the Irish Gold Cup. Picture: Healy Racing
Where does one start? It should have been with the Nathaniel Lacy and Co Solicitors Novice Hurdle, the opening race this afternoon at Leopardstown, but can I skip straight past the 12-year disqualification handed to Ronan McNally on Tuesday by the IHRB referrals committee? I don't think so, but I have no intention of delving into the whole report either.
So, as I can understand the rulings and sentencing, the IHRB referrals committee found Ronan guilty of 10 of the 11 charges presented against him. Elaborate and carefully selected wordings were used to deliver each finding, but deceit is what it boils down to.
He was charged with acting deceitfully, surrounding the handicapping of his horses and the hiding of others he had in training, with David Dunne, primarily. David will serve a six-month ban for his role, as will Ciarán Fennessy, who passed information to two relatives who gained financially from his info regarding Ronan's horses in both a negative and positive manner.
Eoin O'Brien received the standard 21-day suspension for his suspect ride on one of Ronan's at Navan in 2020. Mark Enright and Darragh O’Keeffe received cautions for not reporting slow starts on the horses they rode for Ronan, highlighting how daft the lengths of this inquiry went to. Nobody told the stewards: It doesn't matter how obvious it is so, technically, we have you, and we will caution you.
The IHRB brought charges against Ronan under as many rules as possible, no matter how overlapping or intertwined they were. Some related to his actions’ damage to the sport’s image, and others centred on his disregard for the sport’s rules.
The sting for Ronan came in how the Referrals Committee viewed the ramifications of his deceit. They took such a dim view of the charges brought, they found him guilty under four major, different rules and subheadings — 212, 213, 272, and 273 — which were all totted up to make 12 years.
Charge nine of the 12 under rule 213(xiii) summarises most of the case if you want to read it. There are other minor rules he infringed, but one feels an appeal will be lodged. Sentences that run concurrently rather than consecutively, which will still be substantial, might be more realistic.
Let’s get back to Saturday and the Dublin Racing Festival, for which Willie Mullins dominated the five-day entry stage. He accounted for 33 of the 66 horses left in the eight Grade One races, but that’s 32 of 64 because El Fabiolo and American Mike held double entries.
He holds most of the aces this weekend but might not get off to a flyer where a rare UK raider, the Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained Weveallbeencaught, could land the spoils.
Willie has six of the eight runners in the Spring Juvenile, where the unbeaten Lossiemouth sets a high standard. His new French recruit, Gust Of Wind, might chase her home before a fascinating Arkle field takes to the track.
The variation in owners which Willie Mullins has seen him field five runners, all worthy of their place in the line-up, along with Fils D'or, Banbridge, and Visionarian. Appreciate It is Paul Townend's choice — a wise one, I would think — but with Dysart Dynamo bowling along and El Fabiolo and Flame Bearer in hot pursuit, this has the makings of a classic. Mark Walsh, riding Saint Roi, will watch on from the back, a ploy that makes him attractive in the each-way market, but Appreciate It would be my pick to come out on top.
The main event is the Paddy Power Gold Cup, and it's all about Galopin Des Champs. He looks to have it all for a staying chaser but has yet to prove himself in open company at three miles, and Saturday he gets to do that.
Saturday night, we still won’t know if the Gold Cup distance is within his compass, but we will have an idea, and I believe he will blow Foxrock apart this afternoon.
A pair of competitive handicaps follow the four top-level events en route to the winners’ bumper, where Patrick Mullins has chosen Fact To File, but Jody Townend seems to love thwarting him and could well do so again on Chosen Witness.
Sunday will build to the Champion Hurdle in what will feel like slow motion. Risk Belle could win the first, now up in trip, while Mighty Potter sets the standard in the second, and Blue Lord looks unopposable in the third.
Panda Boy can avenge his Paddy Power defeat in the Leopardstown Chase, but all the eyes in the South Dublin racetrack will be waiting for the next, in which Honeysuckle takes on State Man and Vauban, amongst others.
A defeated champion who returns to the ring with her career on the line, all Leopardstown eyes will be on her when she sets off in an attempt to repel younger legs.
State Man looks to be the Closutton first string and will be a formidable opponent for Henry De Bromhead’s ace, and he will test her. Still, I feel only those closely attached to connections of the opposition will be rooting for anyone other than Rachael and Honeysuckle. Can she win? Of course, she can, but will she? I don't know, but even me, with my feet in the Closutton camp, will enjoy the scenes if she does.
Leopardstown could be buzzing or need a boost when Facile Vega faces High Definition in the next, and it should get what the crowd wants as the final Grade One looks a belter on paper. It’s National Hunt breeding versus the Flat elite, in February, and I will stick with my roots here and hope Facile Vega is all we believe him to be.
Willie Mullins’ dominance and the stranglehold of this meeting have been a hot topic this week and will be again this weekend. As an insider in the camp, it got me thinking: Where are all the horses? And why is this so reliant on Willie?
That’s the opposite of how most people have looked at it, but every debate has two sides. What if he chose to be selective and, like with Energumene and Blue Lord, split them all up? How would Saturday look if he decided to run just two in each race? His third, fourth, and even fifth strings are players today.
It seems like some one-sided matches, only he who pays the piper calls the tune, so it's every owner for themselves in Closutton this weekend. Willie Mullins is sending his troops to the Dublin Racing Festival, but where are the horses to take them on?
The age of the runners in the eight Grade One races ranges from four to 11. Twenty-eight were bred in Ireland, but between 2012 and 2019, over 70,000 foals were born here. Allow a conservative 20% of those to be National Hunt foals, and it's 14,000, so why have just 28 of the underestimated 14,000 managed to turn here in the eight Grade One races this weekend? That's one from every 500 foals, or 13,972 who haven't got here.
Again, I ask, where are all the horses? And why?
