Who’s afraid of Willie Mullins? Pretty well every other trainer and certainly the bookies who made his French import Ocastle Des Mottes a 7-2 hot favourite for the Betfair Hurdle – which is the richest event of its kind run in Britain – at Newbury on Saturday. You can see why. The ever-courteous Mullins holds the record for the most winners trained in a season by an English or Irish trainer at 245 and the most Grade One victories in a season at 34. No one has trained more than his 94 winners at the Cheltenham Festival.
On Cheltenham Trials Day a fortnight before, being more concerned with the then oncoming Dublin Racing Festival, Willie sent over just two horses. His Lossiemouth produced the performance of the day in winning the mares’ race and Capodanno, well down the pecking order at Closutton, was untroubled in winning the Grade Two Cotswold Chase.
‘He’s a character like all good horses but we’re in control of him now and he’s behaving our way, not his’
Then came the Dublin Festival where – despite the best efforts of Gordon Elliott, Henry de Bromhead and his other domestic rivals – Willie Mullins achieved the remarkable feat of winning all eight Grade One races over the two days.
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