It’s Mullins’ day again as power imbalance clear to see
AMID the fanfare of trumpets for Willie Mullins as he cleaned up every Oscar going at the Dublin Racing Festival, there was also a sense that the sport needs competition as much as it does a coronation.
That all eight grade one races over two days were won by one trainer is not the fault of Mullins, who can recall when he didn’t have a horse good enough to line up in the elite races, never mind win, but the Festival lacked an edge. It was one-sided and, at times, predictable.
For all his innate decency and politeness, Mullins loves the cut and thrust of competition and while he has no hang-ups about pitching his own horses against each other, a part of him would have welcomed a contender ducking into the ring and trading blows.
Three of the grade ones yesterday involved just 11 runners, of which Mullins saddled nine. One of them, the €150,000 Ladbrokes Novice Chase, was a match between two Mullins horses.
It was utterly one-sided too as Fact To File was miles in front of Gaelic Warrior when the latter upended Paul Townend at the last. Townend was shook up but cleared the head for armchair wins on Ballyburn (€150,000 Tattersalls Novice Hurdle), El Fabiolo (€150,000 Ladbrokes Dublin Chase) and State Man (€200,000 Chanelle Pharma Irish Champion Hurdle) before skipping his other two rides.
Over the two days, Mullins won nine races and his horses banked in excess of €1m in prizemoney. He was invincible and his success will encourage others with deep pockets to source young horses for him to train.
Again, that is not his fault. He has built his Closutton empire up from nothing and has grafted 24/7 for all he has. His triumphs are good for him, but are they good for racing?
Henry De Bromhead was one of the few to put it up to Mullins over the weekend with two seconds in grade ones followed by Heart Wood in the €150,000 Leopardstown Handicap Chase.
De Bromhead, third in the trainer’s table, offered a qualified assessment on the Mullins machine.
‘Willie’s a phenomenal trainer. He’s made us all raise our game. I think we’re capable of doing it,’ he said.
‘Of course, we would all love to be up there. We were second in two grades ones to him today. You have to get good horses as well. We’ve proved that we can do it but it’s about getting the good horses.
‘When we get the horses, we can do it. I suppose it’s trying to get that out that to people.He makes it very hard. Obviously, it’s frustrating but you have to admire it. He’s an amazing trainer. Aren’t we lucky to have him?’
Mouse Morris, like De Bromhead a Gold Cup and Grand National-winning trainer, has seen it all over half a century.
‘You can’t blame Willie. You can’t hit a man on top of the hedges because he’s good,’ he said.
‘But it’s not good for the game, not when you see him having four of the five runners (in a grade one). What can be done? I don’t know. Winners follow winners.
‘In the old days when Arkle was winning everything, they made a special handicap for him but I don’t think that would be very practical. Willie can only do what he does. You’ve just got to put up and shut up.’
Morris wasn’t alone in querying the absence of runners from across the Irish Sea at the meeting. There was one runner on Saturday and one yesterday.
‘This racing is as good as anywhere, as Cheltenham or Punchestown,’ said Morris. ‘There’s serious good horses here and serious dough too.’
Most of the dough was headed to County Carlow last night as Mullins was crowned ‘Lord of Leopardstown’ once again.
Asked about the dearth of runners in the grade ones, he acknowledged a two-horse match was ‘frustrating’ and ‘unfortunate’.
‘Grangeclare West wasn’t right this morning and we withdrew him. We run everything we can. I don’t have an answer. We just aim for these festivals and hope that ours turn up but they don’t all turn up.’
Of his nine winners, only five were favourites with Townend riding just won one of the first five grade ones before finishing with a treble top.
‘We had a couple of favourites beaten yesterday but that’s racing and that’s why you have to come to the races to find out. If I was punting, I’d be losing my tonsils based on my tipping,’ said Mullins.
There was little value in the market as 6/4 (Fact To File), 10/11 (Ballyburn), El Fabiolo (4/11) and State Man (2/5) won as they pleased for Mullins to underscore their Cheltenham Festival claims.
It appeared all teed up for his hotpot Aurora Vega in the bumper but stablemate Fleur Au Fusil, a market drifter from 7/1 to 10/1 scooted up for Jody Townend. As expected, WPM had the final word.
“He makes it hard. Obviously it’s frustrating”