French connection a big part of Mullins’ success

Two years ago Mullins managed a whopping thirteen, which included no less than seven successes at Grade 1 level.

On the back of Cheltenham it is easily argued that Mullins currently has his strongest ever team and nothing he achieves at Punchestown will in any way surprise.

At Cheltenham he set a new record of eight winners for the week, beating Nicky Henderson’s previous seven.

In doing so he won just over £1m for his owners and that has to be regarded as a rather tasty week.

One of the things to emerge from Cheltenham was just how important buying horses in France has become for him.

It has, admittedly, been important for a good while, but this didn’t half emphasise the point.

Four of his eight winners, Don Poli, Douvan, Un De Sceaux and the immaculate Vautour were sourced in France.

It is the ability of Mullins and his advisors to find these horses that makes such a difference.

Obviously they are not cheap, but the deep pockets of Rich Ricci, and others, means that money is rarely a problem.

The exciting Un De Sceaux is particularly interesting. He arrived on the back of winning two races in France, but they were at tracks that were unknown, you suspect, to most of us.

Gold Cup second, Djakadam, of, course also came from France, as did the legendary Hurricane Fly.

Champion hurdler Faugheen, however, is a product of the point-to-point fields, having won his only outing between the flags at Ballysteen in April of 2012. Returned at 2-1, he must have been one of the greatest value bets in the history of racing! But back to Punchestown and just how much of a Mullins benefit might it be? Well, I think we can safely say that, even at this remove, Don Poli, Douvan, Faugheen and Un De Sceaux are all likely odds on shots. There is really no race at Punchestown for Vautour, so he will surely turn up somewhere else.

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I have never been able to get my head around how handicappers rate horses from different jurisdictions.

All handicapping is a guessing game anyway and is even more pronounced when say an English compiler is asked to slot in Irish horses.

Irish trainers have been claiming for years that our horses are badly handicapped in Britain and I have never really understood how such conclusions are arrived at.

In any case, Cheltenham this year will surely put an end the whole thing. The truth is that some of ours proved to be so well handicapped that it was almost embarrassing.

In the County Hurdle, for instance, Willie Mullins’ Wicklow Brave was followed home by five more Irish horses.

The Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle was won by another Mullins inmate, Killultagh Vic, with the first four all from Ireland.

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I’d imagine Mikey Fogarty will not look back on his display aboard Fine Article in a novice hurdle at Navan last Sunday with any great relish.

Fine Article is a big, strapping three-mile chaser in the making and certainly not the best jumper of hurdles in training.

His technique has been better of late, however, and was reasonably good at Navan.

Basically, he seems to be a slow horse, with the capacity to stay all day! But this two miles and seven race was run at a crawl for the most part and never going to play to the strengths of Fine Article, who went off the 11-8 favourite.

Fogarty may have been under strict instructions to hold up his partner and to produce him with one run in the straight.

But to get anywhere near the top in any sport you have to be your own man. Fogarty, though, didn’t do much through the contest and, in the end, Fine Article failed to get to grips with Vedettariat, who was hard to fancy, even if he was trained by Willie Mullins.

When the contest was over you were left with the feeling Fine Article had lost in just about the only way tat was possible!

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I was relating this Cheltenham story to someone the other day and he said you have to tell that on Saturday.

Why not? Many years ago, I tipped a horse to win the Champion Hurdle and he was beaten passing the stands with a circuit to go.

On returning from the festival there was a letter waiting for me in the Examiner office and the writer, who couldn’t spell, launched a ferocious tirade regarding my abilities as a tipster, concentrating on the said Champion Hurdle.

It was his first two words, however, that have long remained embedded in the memory. He began his offering with: “Dear bollix.’’ Even now it makes me chuckle.