Willie Mullins has had a year of misfortune and mishaps. His
army may not have been depleted in numbers when Gigginstown removed their
horses from his yard following a dispute over fees, but he most certainly did
lose some class. Not only was this a loss to him, but it benefited his main
rival on these shores – the up-and-coming Gordon Elliott.
Mullins was of course still left with some true superstars
in the yard, mainly courtesy of Rich Ricci and Graham Wylie, but one by one
they too seemed to disappear, with the injuries and incidents coming at a
ferocious pace. Vautour died in a
freak accident, Annie Power picked
up an injury, Faugheen wouldn’t make
the festival, Min was out for the
season. It was never going to be easy.
Indeed, it was a slow start for Mullins. No winners on the
first two days caused many to question his previously undisputed position at
the top of the heap, the very best of trainers. With Gordon Elliott firing in
the winners, people began to ask whether Mullins had lost his touch.
The answer is undoubtedly a resounding no. When taking a
closer look at Mullins’ runners over the first two days, we see that almost all
of them ran up to form. Melon
realistically didn’t deserve to be favourite in the Supreme on form alone but
put in a fantastic effort for a horse which had only run once before. Limini and Vroum Vroum Mag ran fine races just to be beaten close to home by
ex-stablemate and top-class mare Apples
Jade.
There were plenty of others in with chances which came up
short, but realistically nothing screamed out that Mullins’ was a yard out of
form, aside from the fact that the winners tally wasn’t quite living up to his
legendary reputation and outstanding record at Cheltenham. Douvan was the one exception, putting in a bitterly disappointing
run which has subsequently been explained by an MRI scan showing a stress
fracture.
Mullins kept his cool and battled on, and, on Thursday, the
class rose to the top. Yorkhill put in
a fine run to win the JLT. Un De Sceaux,
a similarly quirky animal, ran keenly and was let go to the front, dictating
the Ryanair and winning impressively. Nicholls
Canyon added another grade 1 to his underrated collection and Lets Dance showed herself to be an
extremely talented mare when winning the Mares Novice Hurdle.
When Gold Cup day came around, Mullins just couldn’t stop. A
solid 3rd from Bapaume in
the Triumph was just the warm-up – Arctic
Fire did a magnificent job to win the County Hurdle off top weight, Penhill was a surprise winner of the
Albert Bartlett and Djakdadam was
probably only beaten by the fact that he didn’t quite stay the Gold Cup trip,
travelling beautifully throughout.
Oh, and while we weren’t looking, Mullins also picked up a
Veteran’s Chase in Wexford. He may not win the Irish Trainer’s Championship
this year, but when it comes to next year’s festival we should all remember
that yes, Willie Mullins is still very much the man to follow.
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