Mullins’ domination of NH scene looks set to run and run
It was clearly scripted tongue in cheek, presumably, because such a feat would be simply impossible, even for Mullins. Last March Ireland had more winners at the festival than Britain for the first time in history, 14-13.
The point said colleague was making was that, such is the stranglehold Mullins currently has on Irish racing, with unprecedented firepower, almost anything is possible.
There are certainly plenty rumblings that having so many top horses in the hands of one man is not good for the game in this country.
Mullins is amazingly popular, given how successful he is. You will never, for instance, hear a bad word said about him in the press-rooms of Ireland — and that’s a rarity.
It has much to do with the fact he goes out of his way to facilitate the press, but also because he has a sort of easy-going personality that endears him to people.
So is his domination of National Hunt racing in Ireland a bad thing? Of course not and, quite frankly, here’s one who says good luck to him.
Mullins didn’t arrive at this point by accident. He wasn’t always the leading trainer, but hard work and sheer genius have seen him leave just about every other member of the profession trailing in his wake.
Year on year he has built on previous success and it has got to the stage where Closutton is now home to a frightening array of talent. Most of the leading owners want to be with him and he has horses for the likes of Gigginstown, J P McManus, Graham Wylie, Alan Potts and, arguably, his number one supporter, the colourful Rich Ricci.
Mullins has a lot of strengths, not least his ability to repeatedly add more and more stock to an already powerful yard.
When you look at the entries, especially at the weekend, you will come across numerous horses trained by the man that literally no one has ever heard of.
There are a constant stream of W P Mullins newcomers appearing in bumpers and a seemingly endless supply of French imports ready to start off over flights.
For most other trainers it has to be disconcerting, to say the least, but that’s the way the Irish National Hunt racing world is right now.
All the signs are that the Mullins bandwagon isn’t going to stop rolling any time soon. Trainers such as Gordon Elliott, Dessie Hughes, Noel Meade and Tony Martin know that he is not going to come back to them, so the challenge is to take him on whenever and wherever they can. No wonder we love this jumping game.
He first appeared on the radar for most of us when winning a bumper by 22 lengths at Punchestown in May, a contest that has been working out quite well.
But I never get worked up when it comes to bumpers and prefer to wait until a horse is launched over jumps before getting too carried away.
Faugheen’s stable companion, Turnandgo, is a good example of a horse that looked a star in bumpers, especially when winning by nine lengths at the Punchestown festival, but has been basically disappointing in two outings over flights this season.
But the best example of all is surely Moscow Flyer, who failed to win in four attempts in bumpers.
Once a set of obstacles was placed in front of him, however, it was like watching a completely different horse.
He went on to develop into one of the greatest of all time, winning seven over hurdles and nineteen as a chaser.
Faugheen, unlike Turnandgo, has won both his outings over hurdles, at Punchestown, and without leaving second gear.
Neither contest took much winning, however, and we are going to learn a lot more about him as we go along, hopefully in the near future.
for the Ryanair Hurdle at Leopardstown on December 29 and it certainly made for interesting reading.
They went 11-10 Hurricane Fly, 15-8 Our Conor and 7-2 Jezki. Not so long ago the notion that Hurricane Fly wouldn’t be odds-on for a race in Ireland would have been unthinkable. Mind you he soon was, hardening to 4-5.
But you have to say the firm has got this just about right, due to two factors. Firstly, Hurricane Fly does have something to prove, following a less than impressive success on his reappearance in the Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown last month.
Then there is Our Conor and Jezki, two horses improving at a rate of knots and surely with the best to come.
I’ve never been Jezki’s biggest fan, but liked what I saw when he won the Hatton’s Grace at Fairyhouse last time.
If you knew for sure he was going to turn up in the Ryanair then that 7-2 would be mighty tempting.
