He has actually won more in placed prize money (over £2.5m) than in win prize money (over £2.4m) – if you look at the win prize money, Mullins is less than £1m behind but in combined prize money it is actually over £2m.
Mullins will pretty much need to win the two Nationals (with placed horses also), Bet365 Cup (with placed horses also), Celebration & Oaksey Chases and likely most of Aintree’s G1s and whilst we know he does have the firepower to do it, you would imagine that he will likely have smaller teams for Aintree/Ayr/Sandown as he will need his top Cheltenham money earning horses in particular to head to Punchestown, as he still trails Elliott in the Irish Jumps title by nearly £400k.
I know Skeleton is not everyone’s cup of tea but I doubt that any trainer has maximised their whole stable’s earning potential to the extent that he has and as such he deserves to win the trainer’s title this year.