Mullins Hails Staff Heroes As Big Guns Primed.

Mullins hails unsung heroes as big guns primed for Punchestown

Gaelic Warrior has such ability that he could win at any trip.    Lossiemouth is “entering Quevega territory”.   And the reformed Il Etait Temps benefited from the ride of the week by Paul Townend in the shadow of the Cotswolds, to score in the Champion Chase. So says the man who has overseen the development of the Cheltenham Triple Crown-winning trio, Willie Mullins.

Each has presented a puzzle to solve at various points in their careers and one suspects that solving such conundrums and ruminating upon the best course of action for any given horse is as much the reason why the enduring behemoth of the jumps game gets as much a kick out of his staggering success now, as ever.
Mullins heads to the Punchestown Festival, which kicks off next Tuesday, armed with such artillery that even though he trails Gordon Elliott by €154,000 in the race to be champion trainer, he is an unbackable favourite to garner enough of the record €3.6 million in prize money on offer throughout the five days, to secure his 20th title.

The aforementioned superstars are all on target for a bid at following up on home turf, but in the case of Gaelic Warrior and Il Etait Temps, there are considerable challenges from stablemates to face. Fact Or File comes into the Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup fresh, having been withdrawn from the Ryanair Chase due to unsuitable ground, while in the William Hill Champion Chase, Majborough represents the latest enigma for the master conditioner to deal with, capable of blowing a race apart but also of shooting himself in the foot.

This is championship racing, in every sense.

It is funny now, to reflect on how many column inches went into Mullins’ slow start to the season. It was relative, of course, but it wasn’t totally imagined. The man himself has acknowledged it. And coupled with Elliott’s blistering campaign, it is why Closutton still has ground to make up if the yard is to record a 19th consecutive trainers’ gong.
“We were very happy with the season, how it played out and is playing out,” says Mullins now, with the festival just days away. “We still have Punchestown to go but we are very happy that we’ve had a good season.

“What can we say? We had a great Cheltenham, then there was winning the Grand National and we had a good home season as well.”
He has spoken before about the impact of the sustained rain as Autumn transitioned to Winter, arriving as it did, on the back of a near drought. Delaying seasonal debuts caused a backlog in terms of finding races for all the horses. It felt like a race against time, on occasion, but as sure as night follows day and Punchestown brings the curtain down on the Irish jumps season, the Closutton crew got it right when it mattered most. The boss hails the endeavours of his staff for ensuring this was the case. “A really prolonged wet period is tough on staff, tough on horses… I must compliment my staff this year with the year that was in it, how good they are. Every day, they’re all dressed for wet weather, and they appear in and get their work done, and there’s never a grumble from them. We’re very grateful to have such fine staff, who seem to enjoy the challenge that we had. Yeah, we owe them a big thanks.

“I think in any business to have good staff morale is important. And when you take that into context, the horses have to be in good form as well. If you have happy staff, you’ll have happy horses. If horses are happier, they’ll work a lot more for you. That’s a big thing.” The fruits of all those labours are illustrated best in Spring. Gaelic Warrior is a case in point, a horse that has had many people scratching their heads at different times. Can’t go left-handed, needs a trip. Then wins a Cheltenham Arkle Chase over two miles, after an exhausted fall at Leopardstown that offered proof positive he would not even be a Ryanair horse. Begins this season with triumph in the John Durkan Memorial in an epic battle with Fact Or File, after running away with Townend. That made it three from four at Punchestown, the first victory coming in what is now the Channor Real Estate Group Novice Hurdle in 2023, the only defeat being inflicted by Il Etait Temps in the Barberstown Castle Novice Chase 12 months later. And most recently, one of the most impressive winners of the Cheltenham Gold Cup in recent memory.
“I just think Gaelic Warrior has such ability, on a given day, he could do two miles, two and a half or three, depending on opposition. He’s got such ability, he can do that. But he was brilliant in the Gold Cup.”

Il Etait Temps bouncing back from a below par effort at Ascot in January was probably the team’s best feat though, Mullins indicates.
“I would take more from the likes of Il Etait Temps. A lot of people put a line through him when he fell in Ascot and for him to come back and win the Champion Chase was great.
“But to me, that victory as much down to Paul’s, what I would have thought was ride of the week in Cheltenham. Now I might be a bit biased. I’d be only looking at our own horses, but I thought his ride in the Champion Chase was just something else.

“That’s the difference, having a man on board who is not afraid to sit when he thought the pace was too fast and if it didn’t work out, he was going to get a lot of criticism. I’m looking at Paul and thinking, ‘He knows something. He knows they’re going too fast.’ I had such confidence in him. I just thought it was a huge ride from him in a race like that.”
There was a time when Townend just could not get it right with Il Etait Temps and on more than one occasion, the Cork pilot – who has made a virtue out of being on the right one more often than not – chose a stablemate, only to see the eight-year-old owned by Hollywood Racing and Barnane Stud gallop away into the distance in front of him.
Prior to this season’s two Grade 1 victories in which Townend has done the navigating, the son of Jukebox Jury had scored five times at elite level and Danny Mullins was on board for four of them. Seemingly always under-appreciated, from his seven top-flight successes, he has only been favourite once, when careering to a nine-length victory in the Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown last December.

“Il Etait Temps was a tough ride in his early stages, he was hard to ride. Apart from riding him right, he was just hard to ride. He was very keen. He was tough on jockeys. Danny got a great tune out of him in the early days.” Townend has always been a regular on Lossiemouth, however, and it was the desire to maintain that partnership that had connections preferring the Mares’ Hurdle option at Prestbury Park until this season, when injury ruled State Man out. Indeed, the manner of her victory at Cheltenham is clearly a direct compliment to the ability of State Man, another apparently underrated Closutton stalwart, albeit that Rich Ricci’s mare is now in the throes of establishing her own legendary status. “Paul would never have gotten off State Man to ride Lossiemouth any day of the week and told me that more than once over the last couple of years, so it just shows (how good he is),” Mullins acknowledges.
“But it shows what a mare she is too. She’s been to Cheltenham four times and won four times. That’s a fair statistic. She’s getting into Quevega territory.”
Lossiemouth also has a fantastic record at Punchestown, where she has a blemish-free record from three outings, all in Grade 1s. Most recently, she has added the Unibet Morgiana Hurdle in November to her festival successes in the Ballymore Champion Hurdle (2023) and SBK Irish EBF Mares’ Champion Hurdle.
Mullins reports the trio and indeed all of his Cheltenham Festival-winning squad to have come out of proceedings well and on track to rock up to Punchestown. The Kildare venue is one he appreciates and the festival is one he relishes.

“We have a good team coming next week. The key to Punchestown is the fact that they water so well and provide safe jumping ground.
“It’s one of the biggest meetings in our season, we enjoy going there. The weather is usually good, the ground is good, the prize money is good. It’s just a fabulous meeting and we take it very seriously. It’s been good to us over the years.”
It is the first time since he nabbed Elliott in the dying embers of the 2018 festival that Mullins goes into Punchestown trailing in the trainers’ championship.
“Yes! It’s going to make it a very interesting week. And we’ll enjoy it either way. Everyone’s in good form at Punchestown and you’ve got to take it as it comes. We’ve had upsets there before, and we’ll have more, but largely, it’s been very good to us.”

Willie Mullins Stable Tour
LADBROKES PUNCHESTOWN GOLD CUP
“Both GAELIC WARRIOR and FACT TO FILE are in good shape and it should be a fascinating race again, over a longer trip compared to the John Durkan.
“Fact To File didn’t run in Cheltenham so that’s going to be a huge advantage to him I’d say.
“We’ll leave it till the weekend to make a decision on IMPAIRE ET PASSE. He was going quite well until falling at Aintree so we’ll see. The National didn’t work out for GRANGECLARE WEST or CHAMP KIELY and they have been left in for now as well.”

WILLIAM HILL CHAMPION CHASE
“IL ETAIT TEMPS, MAJBOROUGH and ENERGUMENE have done their final bits of work and I am very happy with them. Il Etait Temps has come out of Cheltenham very well.
“I think we still have to find the right way to get Majborough right. He’s not a finished product yet. We’ve got to ask ourselves, ‘Does he need a longer trip?’ I don’t know. There’s certain days he looks fantastic, and other days he doesn’t. We haven’t got the finished product yet.
“At this point in time, Energumene will run. The weather forecast wouldn’t be great for him (as he needs soft going) but if the ground is safe for him, he’ll run. And they’re past masters at getting safe ground in Punchestown.”

BOODLES CHAMPION HURDLE
LOSSIEMOUTH has come out of Cheltenham fine and we are looking forward to her being back at Punchestown, where she has a great record.
ANZIDAM is another horse, like Il Etait Temps, that’s been difficult to ride in the early stage of his career, so I’m hoping we get a better handle on him next week. Maybe he’s a horse that needs to go over fences and that might make him easier to handle.
It’s been tough for PONIROS and it always is at his age, coming out of a juvenile campaign. I’m not expecting anything from him this week and am waiting more for next season for him when he matures. EL FABIOLO and ABSURDE are also still in the mix.

LADBROKES CHAMPION STAYERS’ HURDLE
“I’m not sure what way we’re going to go in the Stayers’. Teahupoo will be hard to beat, whatever we run. We have four left in it: ABSURDE, JIMMY DU SEUIL, KAWABOOMGA and JADE DE GRUGY. We’re looking at an end-of-season experiment to see have we got one good enough for a staying hurdle campaign next year.

NOVICE HURDLERS
“I’m hoping they’ll all rock up again. Some of them showed well at Cheltenham, some were disappointing. LEADER D’ALLIER (PRL Champion Novice Hurdle) is a nice horse but I don’t think we’ve got anything like the best out of him yet. His homework would suggest he’s a lot better than his finishing position at Fairyhouse, though he won his maiden well at Punchestown in January.
It was fantastic to get a winning bracket at Cheltenham for KING RASKO GREY, and I’m not decided yet which direction I’m going to go with him, but it would look more like the Alanna Homes Champion Novice Hurdle over two and a half miles, than the PRL Champion Novice Hurdle over two.
DOCTOR STEINBERG obviously is very good over a trip, but we’ve got to get the tactics right. He was way too free in Cheltenham.
KITZBUHEL was brilliant in Cheltenham but there won’t be a rematch with FINAL DEMAND in the Dooley Insurance Group Champion Novice Chase. I just wasn’t happy with him (yesterday) morning. He’s a big unit and I’d rather have him fresh for next season.”