Pendulum of four days’ duelling won’t knock Mullins out of his stride
WIN or lose on the opening day of the Festival, Willie Mullins will draw from the hard-nosed Wall Street book of business – next trade!
The time for totting is Friday evening when useless betting slips flutter across empty enclosures at Cheltenham and the Cotswolds tumult is silenced for another year.
It is then Mullins will take stock, and assess if he’s ahead of the game, or not. He currently stands on 54 winners and it will rattle the Festival foundations if he hasn’t broken the 60barrier after 28 ultracompetitive races.
By Philip Quinn
He is seeking to regain his top trainer’s title from Gordon Elliott – there was a short-head between them 12 months ago. And his experience of the frenetic Festival trading floor tells him the four days of duelling will swing to and fro like a pendulum.
Three years ago, Mullins bagged a first-day fourtimer; last year, he was rocked by Douvan’s demise in the Champion Chase and couldn’t land a blow until the third day, when another quartet of winners rescued his week.
‘With the pace of Cheltenham – the races and the day – we always say to ourselves at the start of the meeting “when the s**t hits the fan, just move on to the next race.”
‘There’ll be time enough when we come home to worry about what happened and what went wrong. So, we just forget it. Like the guys in Wall Street say: Next trade. Lose 30 or 40 million. Next trade.’
It helps when you have plenty to trade with. Mullins will oversee a team close to 50 this week, including Festival stalwarts such as Ryanair Chase contender Un De Sceaux, his ‘iron horse’ who is running for a fourth straight year.
By now, all the preparation is done and Mullins has his huge team as hardy and fit as he possibly can. ‘There’ll be no more wrapping in cotton wool, that’s done away with. Famously I think we don’t have much cotton wool around our yard. Faugheen will have to go and do what he has to do,’ he said.
‘Sometimes you can mind them too much. So, you just have to let them up there and do their work. They’re like Premiership teams at the moment, the players are worth a fortune but they have to play and they have to train and the good ones come out on top.’
Mullins doesn’t fret over black cats crossing his path this week, walking under ladders or if any of his horses carry the number 13.
‘I gave up being superstitious a long time ago,’ he insisted.
‘I was with my mother going racing one day and I was counting magpies and next thing I got to “eight for a wake” and the car turned over on an icy road.’
This is the 40th anniversary of Mullins’
first visit to Cheltenham. It was the year the Gold Cup was lost to snow – which it might have been again this year – and it remains a race which captivates him.
He’s hit the bar more often than any trainer, with no fewer than six second places – Florida Pearl (2000), Hedgehunter (2006), Sir Des Champs (2013), On His Own (2014), Djakadam (2015 and ’16).
This week, he is set to aim four arrows at the most coveted target in jump racing, with Djakadam, who is contesting for a fourth successive year, joined by Killultagh Vic, Total Recall and Bachasson.
Mullins has traditionally struck on day one where the lie of the cards plays to his strengths, with races for novice hurdlers, novice chasers and the mares’ hurdle.
And he has high hopes of an opening day double, if not more, with Getabird (Supreme Novices’ Hurdle) and Footpad (Arkle Trophy Chase).
‘They all have a great chance, but last year we thought that too. Hopefully, we’ll have as good a year as last year, but maybe more evenly spaced out.’
As a plus, ace pilot Ruby Walsh has judged his recovery from a broken leg with Seiko like timing, while Paul Townend has recovered from a foot injury.
For all the season-long questions marks over the fitness Faugheen (Champion Hurdle) and Douvan (Champion Chase), they are back in the arena. Just like the Wall Street bulls and bears, they are primed to do Mullins’ bidding.