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Fantastic to achieve something that hadn’t been done for 70 years. By far the most worthy sporting story, but no surprise that the sports bulletin that I watched didn’t even give him a mention.
He drives me mad with some of the things he comes out with, but he’s a hard man to knock. I much prefer him as a character to Nicholls and Skelton, and he is far more punter friendly than those two, particularly Skelton.
I guess they will be hoping he doesn’t try and defend the title.
The fat lady ain’t sung yet
The things I want most in life are the things that I can't win.
It’s over RTB , Mullins spent time today signing autographs and doing selfies , he’s a class act
Congratulations to a man who is not afraid of running his horses. He is a class act HDLG, he knows how to give interviews and inform the public. Skelton, imo gives the most unsatisfactory interviews, as if he’d be hiding something. Mostly the horses’ true ability, I guess.
He will become champion trainer a few years from now, but he still is a few decent horses away from achieving that.
“Skelton, imo gives the most unsatisfactory interviews, as if he’d be hiding something. Mostly the horses’ true ability, I guess”
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Did you see the ride given to Spanaish Harlem last time out, ERL? “Not knocked about” I think is the phrase… And the fact Mullins has won the Aintree and Scottish Grand Nationals with horses who’ve been running over inadequate trips…It’s as if Mullins is “hiding something. Mostly the horses’s true ability”.
Value Is Everything“He drives me mad with some of the things he comes out with”
Such as? I’ve never heard him be anything less than classy in his interviews.
I am talking about plans for horses, the most obvious are those surrounding Ballyburn. I don’t expect him to be going anywhere near a Champion Hurdle. As I said before it seems he has enough sensible people around him to prod in the right direction.
Skelton is a punters nightmare. I am never going to conclude that purposefully deceiving people is great training. The worst aspect is the way horses are dropped out the back, and hey presto when they are expected they are suddenly on the front end. His horses race for those in the know. When interviewed I always think that Nicholls is on a short fuse. The body language always suggests to the interviewer don’t be asking a question I might not like. Mullins for the most part seems both gracious and unflustered.
It merely highlights how poor the prize money is for 3/4 of the season. 6 weeks ago Mullins was nowhere in the title race – he had a successful Cheltenham, and suddenly appears at the top; then wins both the Grand National, and Scottish National…….
I don’t know how many other sports that could happen – even in Flat racing; where the prize money is more evenly spread out……
I personally, think there should be a minimum number of runners to qualify for the title; the season is supposed to reflect 12 months of the sport, not the last 6 weeks.
Another reason why NH isn’t in a great place……
This hadn’t been done for 70 years.
O’Brien has won umpteen titles on the flat. Presumably, that’s not a great place either?
I met Willie Mullins on my one and only visit to Downpatrick in 2013. He had three winners. He watched all the races from the stands amongst all the punters. He had time to talk to everyone.
It would be good for the sport if there was more competition but I cannot begrudge him his success. To win the British trainers championship is a fine achievement.
I think the turning point in the Trainer’s Championship was when the Henderson yard came down with the virus. It automatically opened up another door to let mullins in.
Willie had never had a winner at Ayr and had to ask where the winners enclosure was.
The things I want most in life are the things that I can't win.
“I think the turning point in the Trainer’s Championship was when the Henderson yard came down with the virus.”
When Cullentra had a virus (the same one?) around Christmas then took a long time to come back to form, it allowed Willie to get quite well ahead in the Irish trainers’s championship. He often talked about his father saying that it was better to secure the Irish title than go chasing rainbows. Once that looked fairly safe, he could afford to send a few more to Aintree than Fairyhouse and so on. So it’s in the British trainers’ interests for Gordon to keep snapping at Willie’s heels all year. In fact, it would have been to their advantage if Elliott had won the Grand National.
Mullins has had 23 winners from 143 runners compared to his two main rivals, with Skelton having had 116 winners from 758 runner and Nicholls on 125 winners from 536 runners.
Interestingly, Donald McCain and Fergal O’Brien are the only other trainers that have saddled over 500 runners with McCain on 74 winners from 575 runners and O’Brien on 103 winners from 508 runners respectively.
A few trainers with a similar ball park number of runners as Mullins include:
Fry: 24 winners from 138 runners
Wadham: 26 wineers from 135 runners
Derham: 39 winners from 159 runners
Lacey: 34 winners from 181 runners
Richards: 35 winners from 186 runners
Bailey: 31 winners from 198 runnersAn individual trainer dominating NH racing is pretty much a common thread if you look back in history. Since the 1968/69 season (so 55 years) just 9 different trainers have won the trainers title
So I have zero issue with Mullins winning the title this year, it would actually be a refreshing change considering that the last trainer not named Nicholls or Henderson to win it was Martin Pipe back in 2004/05.
Granted, Mullins has taken it to a whole new level (with the top grade horses) but it wasn’t to dissimilar to how Pipe was during his heyday (in the main with lower grade horses to be fair) but if it wasn’t for David Nicholson (in 1993/94 and 1994/95) Pipe would have reeled off 17 straight Trainers Titles!!!!
Aidan has obviously won the Flat Trainers Title 6 times (although not since 2017) but you have to go all the way back to 1952/53 and 1953/54 to find the last non English trainer (Vincent O’Brien) to do it over jumps (no doubt that achievement was helped by the fact that he also won the Grand National in 1953 and 1954 and the Gold Cup in 1953).
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