Ireland’s champion trainer set to launch huge assault on Cheltenham

THE Cotswolds in March of 2015 had never seen anything like it before. Expectations had been high that Willie Mullins’ raiding party possessed the potential to leave a lasting legacy on the Cheltenham National Hunt festival, but few punters anticipated that Ireland’s champion trainer would plunder the meeting in such a breathtaking manner.

Mullins broke new ground by turning out nearly a third of the winners at the sport’s flagship event 12 months ago, but it’s probably only setting the standard for what will unfold in the shadow of Cleeve Hill for years to come. The Co Carlow based handler continues to raise the bar each season, with the extraordinary firepower currently at his disposal threatening to again sweep all before them next week.

Assumptions that his record-breaking haul of eight festival wins last year would stand the test of time, at least in the medium term, are already looking premature as bookmakers are diving for cover over the prospect of Mullins’ heavy artillery surpassing that number at the 2016 meeting. It’s easy to see why too as the top trainer at four of the last five Cheltenham festivals is preparing to saddle ante post favourites virtually running into double figures.

We have been long used to Mullins lording it over his training contemporaries in Ireland, but blowing cross channel handlers out of the water on their home turf last March really emboldened his reputation despite the yard failing to deliver a telling blow in the festival bumper – traditionally, a Mullins benefit at Cheltenham.

This is supposed to be National Hunt racing’s most competitive arena, but Mullins is starting to turn the meeting into his own personal fiefdom. After last year’s scalding, the layers are taking no chances with the likes of Douvan and Un De Sceaux priced at odds against since Christmas to deliver for the second year running in the Cotswolds, while punters will hardly get rich either in supporting the stable’s Limini in the new mares novices hurdle.

It was on the first afternoon of Cheltenham 12 months ago that the Mullins bandwagon really took off, despite the last flight tumble of Annie Power (1/2) when she had the OLBG Mares Hurdle at her mercy. With the stable’s Douvan, Un De Sceaux and Faugheen having already romped home, the bookmakers were facing massive liabilities on the Mullins’ four-timer, and though the yard still won the race with 6/1 chance Glens Melody, that scenario avoided a day of carnage for the layers.

Incredibly, however, racing’s great alliance of Mullins and jockey Ruby Walsh are on target next Tuesday to pull off the feat which so agonisingly eluded them in 2015. Douvan, now Arkle Chase bound, Annie Power, re-routed to the Champion Hurdle after Faugheen’s shock suspensory injury, Vroum Vroum Mag and Min, bidding to give connections a fourth consecutive triumph in the Supreme Novices Hurdle, are all strongly fancied market leaders for their respective races.

Another measure of the extraordinary depth of talent in the Mullins yard is the fact that he is responsible for virtually 25% of the entries spread over the festival’s four novice hurdles, with the Closutton-based operation accounting for 22 of the 78 original entries for the Neptune Hurdle next Wednesday alone. In total, Mullins is set to cross the Irish Sea with a raiding party numbering around 60.

Indeed, such is the presumption of Mullins plundering the vast majority of prizemoney on offer at the Olympics of National Hunt racing, he is only being quoted around evens to become champion cross-channel trainer this season – a scenario which would represent a staggering achievement in the modern era and would be somewhat embarrassing for his top English counterparts like Paul Nicholls, Philip Hobbs or Nicky Henderson.

But is another Mullins bonanza at Cheltenham guaranteed? For starters, two of the stable’s bankers, Killultagh Vic in the JLT and Faugheen, have been ruled out by injury, while in late January a quartet of runners with strong credentials returned from their trip across the Irish Sea empty-handed – Djakadam fell on Trials Day at Cheltenham, while Shaneshill, Up For Review and Morning Run all disappointed on the same afternoon in Doncaster.

That may have been a sobering experience for devotees of Mullins, but he has so much ammunition to fire in the Cotswolds next week, despite Arctic Fire being the latest casualty, that punters won’t be deterred, even if picking the right one of the champion trainer’s contenders in specific races will prove a challenge in itself judging by what happened on Irish Gold Cup day at Leopardstown last month . . .  notably Bellshill getting turned over by a much less fancied stable inmate.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.