‘Genius’ Mullins delights in treble
ON Proclamation Day, no one delivered a greater message of nationalist fervour than Willie Mullins. Even the seven signatories, you suspect, would have approved of the statement signed by Commandant Mullins and his equine brigade in the battleground of the Cotswolds yesterday.
Three Grade One winners, two with mares of contrasting character, feisty Annie Power and laid-back Vroum Vroum Mag, prompted Mullins to fist-pump the air in delight — surely a first at Cheltenham.
Then again, Mullins was entitled to his rare display of emotion as he followed the trail blazed by his late father, Paddy, who saddled Dawn Run to the 1984 Champion Hurdle.
On hallowed turf where the initials AP are synonymous with a jockey knight of the realm, it was AP, in the shape of Champion Hurdle heroine Annie Power, who splashed colour on a grey afternoon.
The result delighted those punters who lumped on the 5/2 favourite, and lifted the heart of little Annie Brennan, daughter of Mullins’s vet, Tim.
The six-year-old is fighting leukaemia but her love of her namesake, Annie Power, runs deeps — a good luck card drawn by Annie is pinned on the champ’s stable door.
After Annie Power, complete with ear plugs to keep out the din, silenced her opponents, jockey Ruby Walsh thought of Annie in Crumlin Hospital for Sick Children. ‘There’s another little Annie watching back in Ireland and she’ll be alright too,’ said Walsh.
An ‘ immense’ day, as Mullins described it, dawned with sad word of the passing of Jacqueline O’Brien, the wife of Vincent O’Brien, the greatest racehorse trainer of all.
It ended with Mullins and Walsh towering above their rivals, like the late MV O’Brien used to at Cheltenham in the late 40s and early 50s, before switching to the Flat.
There i s no danger of Mullins switching focus after he took his Festival tally to 44 wins, 34 since 2008.
‘Willie’s a genius,’ hailed owner Rich Ricci, whose pink silks were carried by Walsh to thrilling victories on Douvan, Annie Power and Vroum Vroum Mag.
Unlike last year, 36-year-old Walsh had no last flight alarms on Annie Power, or either of his other winners, as he displayed his familiar ice-cool nerve, and big race expertise.
Walsh has now chalked up 48 Festival winners and should smash through the half-century barrier by the end of the week.
While he pulls the trigger in battle, it is Mullins who loads the musket, as the master pilot acknowledged.
‘Willie’s job is to train winners and put the horses in the right race,’ he said. ‘No one does it better.’
Mullins and Walsh’s understanding was evident after Walsh swung his leg into the irons on Vroum Vroum Mag in the Mares Hurdle, just as Mullins held court on Annie Power in the interview room 50 yards away; his mobile hopping.
Mullins apologised to the media and said he had make a quick phone call to pass on race instructions. ‘These claiming jockeys,’ he joked.
As bemused hacks looked, Mullins made his call and then continued with his briefing. ‘I think I’ll leave it to Ruby,’ he quipped. Leave it he did as Walsh, despite being boxed in on the turn, went vroom vroom as the race was decided in seconds.
The outcome of races two, four and five for the Mullins teams completely glossed over the eclipse of Min in the Supreme Novices Hurdle, where Altior was just too slick.
At least Min will return to fight another day, unlike Pont Alexandre, a favourite of the Mullins yard which was put down after suffering injury in the National Hunt Chase.