Mullins strikes Gold - at last
Al Boum Photo’s triumph leaves great trainer lost for words
Well, he had been waiting some time. Willie Mullins shook his head and smiled, waiting for the words to come to him. There were none. Not great radio but, after more than 20 years of trying and failing, after six Gold Cup second places, the Cheltenham Festival’s most successful trainer did not have a speech ready.
After Al Boum Photo flew over the last, the pounding of hooves up the hill must have been like a redemption song to Mullins. For jockey Paul Townend, who 11 months ago butchered a big race at the Punchestown festival, missing the final fence on Al Boum, this was some way to say thank you to those who stuck by him.
Numerically, Mullins gave himself every chance of ending his hoodoo with four runners in a Gold Cup of 16 horses. When three fell before a circuit was completed, starting with Kemboy flicking Mullins’ nephew David off at the first, he slipped easily into that familiar pall of resignation only for Al Boum Photo to storm to jumping’sgreatest prize
“Racing has been very good to me, I have a fantastic life and I resigned myself to thinking that if I never won it then so be it,” said Mullins after regaining his composure. “Sometimes trainers train certain types of horses in a certain way and maybe it wasn’t a Gold Cup way, even though we were so close, so I thought maybe it’s not to be. You get one chance at it every year and this year, when three of them were gone, I thought it was another year like that. I’m thrilled.”
Freed from that wicked paradox, the highs that his career has given him butting up against the ruins of so many Gold Cup disappointments, Mullins promised it might take longer to negotiate the trip to Kilkenny than it did 33 years ago when his father hit the Gold Cup sweet spot with Dawn Run.
“I didn’t get home for three or four days. It might take a bit longer this time,” he said.
The goodwill washing about team Mullins, as popular this side of the Irish Sea as he is at home, was palpable. For owner Marie Donnelly this was a first experience of victory at Cheltenham. Her principal emotion was delight for Mullins. “I’m so happy for Willie because he has been such a fantastic trainer. Willie deserves it. He is amazing.
Jockey Townend was suitably restored by the experience. “I am just so grateful for the owners for sticking by me. I think I owed it to the horse. My body is tingling, I am trembling, and I can’t believe it. Let me tell you it feels every bit as good as you think it will.”
Sadly, the euphoria would soon be clouded by a tragic reminder of the dangers inherent in this unforgiving enterprise. Invitation Only, one of the three Mullins’ fallers, became the second from his stable to lose its life and the third at this festival.