Cheltenham Festival Preview Part 2- Mullins looking to spearhead Irish Cheltenham challenge

The tape will go down for the Cheltenham Festival on Tuesday afternoon and ever since the Willie Mullins-trained Galopin De Champs claimed victory in the concluding Martin Pipe Conditional Hurdle at last year’s meeting, the talk has been all about the dominance of Irish trainers after they saddled 23 of the 28 winners in what was a record tally.

Mullins had six of those 23. While it was still a good week for the Closutton maestro, it still remained in the shadow after Henry De Bromhead and Rachael Blackmore dominated all around them.

Blackmore became the first woman to become top jockey at the festival with the highlight being her victory aboard Honeysuckle in the Champion Hurdle.

The Tipperary rider took most of the headlines but it can’t be forgotten just what Henry De Bromhead achieved in training the winners of the Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Chase and Gold Cup in a feat that was never previously achieved. It may be a while before it’s done again and that’s without even mentioning the duo’s Aintree Grand National success a few weeks later.

For Mullins the recent Irish success is down to better prize money and structure which attracts the big owners.

“I never thought I’d see Ireland having 23 winners at Cheltenham. When I came out with my first winner, I thought that may never happen again,” he said.

“The racing structure in Ireland with better prize money is attracting bigger owners who, in turn, can buy better horses and possibly that is what is separating the UK and Ireland at the moment.

“It’s not about the trainers, it’s only about the stock that they have available to them, I never dreamt I’d have a yard with so much quality,” he added.

“Back in the day you might have one or two Grade 1 horses in the yard and all of them would be on the ferry over to Cheltenham and Ireland would be lucky to get any winner.

“Now it seems as if it is the other way around and that’s the big difference.”

Galopin Des Champs, with Paul Townend up, on their way to winning the Ladbrokes Novice Steeplechase during day two of the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown. Picture: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Even by Willie Mullins’s highest standards and what he has done at the Cheltenham Festival, the Kilkenny man still admits that it is a tough few days as the pressure is so high.

He even adds that he dreads the week a bit as a result of the expectation that surrounds his stable of stars.

“I dread the week a bit as a result of the expectation from everyone thinking that we are going to have a load of winners when really you just hope to get one winner to get off the mark and take it from there,” he admitted.

“There were a couple of years there that we didn’t have winners at Cheltenham until the Thursday and some years it will happen that we will have a blowout and that’s all in the back of your mind.

“The years we didn’t have any winners until the Thursday, there was no horses there that should have won either as they weren’t good enough,” the trainer said.

“Everyone else’s expectation is going to be your failure if you don’t come up with the winners. That does leave a bit of a dread in your stomach and the week or two before the meeting can be tough in that respect.

“Going into this year’s Dublin Racing Festival it was the same and thankfully things worked out for us pretty well there.

“The main thing is to try and get a winner on the board early and then you can enjoy it a bit.

“On one hand I’m dreading it, but on the other I’m happy with the crew I have around me from the owners to the staff and the horses then come after that,” Mullins added.

Allaho will be one of Willie Mullins’s main fancies of the week in the Ryanair Chase on St Patrick’s Day.

The champion trainer plans to bring 60 horses in total to the festival and while he admits it won’t be his biggest team he still, as it stands, has 13 ante-post favourites for the meeting including Sir Gerhard, Gaelic Warrior, Stattler, Galopin De Champs, State Man, Facile Vega, Allaho, Brandy Love, Vauban, Billaway and Elimay.

Mullins’s compatriot Gordon Elliott is also planning on bringing up to 60 horses for the four days and this is really put into perspective with multiple UK Champion trainer Paul Nicholls only scheduled to run a quarter of that number. It’s a real case in point for how Irish trainers have taken control of the meeting. Mullins always takes the precaution of bringing over an extra few horses.

“Over the last few years the likes of Chacun Pour Soi have got stone bruises while over in Cheltenham on the morning of the race, so we always bring over one or two who are not going to run but I’m hopeful we will still have similar types of numbers all going well.”

Appreciate It and Paul Townend will aim to cause a shock in the Champion Hurdle. Picture: Hugh Routledge/Sportsfile

It’s three years since Ruby Walsh competed in his last Cheltenham Festival as number one jockey to Mullins when he guided Klassical Dream to his sole success in the Supreme Novice Hurdle. It was only a month later when he announced his sudden retirement after racing to Punchestown Gold Cup glory on Kemboy.

Paul Townend was then thrust into the number one spot ahead of the 2020 season. While there is plenty of pressure with having the main riders job in Irish racing, the Cork man has taken it all in his stride including winning back to back Cheltenham Gold Cup’s aboard Al Boum Photo.

Mullins never had any doubt that he’d relish the role that was left behind by Ruby.

“I couldn’t understand the reaction when Paul Townend took over the reins in Ruby’s absence,” the trainer said.

“To me Paul was riding as first jockey way before Ruby retired as Ruby was out injured for a period so it wasn’t something that was new to Paul.

“It puts more pressure onto him, but I think Paul is best with pressure and he can see the funny side of things even when he picks the wrong horse in some of the bigger races.

“I always have faith in my jockeys and I always try to go with my own guys because they know how I like horses to be ridden and they know I like things done and it’s easy for them as a result.

“They learn over the years what I don’t like done and I’m happy with all of them.”

The empty Cheltenham grandstands will be a thing of the past for this year’s festival, with attendances expected to be back to their best

Mullins and Townend will hope to enter the famous Cheltenham winners enclosure over the next few days and as Willie acknowledges he really feels like the Cheltenham buzz is back after the festival went ahead behind closed doors in 2021.

“The buzz I’m getting from people is that everyone wants to be in Cheltenham this year and people are really looking forward to getting back,” he said.

“In 2020 we decided to keep to ourselves as were very aware of Covid - we ate on our own most nights at the hotel. Last year was surreal; although Cheltenham looked after us very well, it just wasn’t the same.

“The owners and trainers were in different sections throughout the week but there were just so few people around and that made it very strange.”

With at least three of the four days set for 70,000 spectators in attendance, it will be all change this year and come 1.30pm on Tuesday when the Cheltenham roar goes up. Everything will almost feel like it’s back to normality.