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At least it will make Cheltenham a bit easier with not so much guessing about Mullin’s plans
Agree with the comments regarding Cheltenham. At least you will have more chance of deciphering what runs where!!
It is just my opinion but I think these two (O’Leary and Mullins) were an accident waiting to happen!! They are both as arrogant as each other. One in his business dealings and the other in his flaunting of the rules of racing!!
Contrary to popular belief, Ryanair et al don’t actually ‘fleece’ people. You aren’t forced to pay £god-knows-what for a stale sandwich or to jump queues. Anyway, why anyone would want to spend longer on the plane I don’t know. Turn up to the airport with the right size/weight bag, a boarding pass and your passport and they wont charge you a penny more.
On topic, sounds like a convenient excuse to me but who knows. Can’t be bad for those will pick up the horses.
I just can’t understand this bloke. He has about 400 horses in training and pays about 15k a year for each of them. So this adds up to around 6 million a year only in training fees. The prize money his horses won in 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 in both GB and IRE was about 7 million pounds in total. So, although having two PHENOMENAL years, his NH operation lost 5 million pounds in those two years.
Now he uses the services of, probably, the best horse trainer in the world and starts complaining over an extra 100,000 maybe 150,000 a year. A man who tops each Festival by far, who wins races in Japan, France and soon maybe even in Australia, who offers him the best training facility in the NH world and yet Mr. RyanAir complains about the first rise Mullins has had in the past 10 years.
Comparing the Mullins strike rate (roughly 30% in the past five years) to Elliott’s (20%) or Meade’s (15% – didn’t think he was that good) he’ll need about twice as many runners to recuperate those potential losses.
Now that’s some business plan, isn’t it????!!! Or maybe just some ego….Just goes to show you the strength of the Mullins yard when the country’s biggest racing operation can take 60 horses from him and he’s still got far and away the best string of horses in the national hunt game.
Some nice horses he’s losing but the Ricci big guns will see that he has the 2 mile championship races covered.
I wonder if they’ll be sending any of their horses to be trained in England?
Here’s a formula they should understand:
Apple’s Jade + Nicky Henderson = Champion Hurdle winner.
When these break ups happen imo there’s a lot more to them than owner or trainer admit to. If I were an owner in the Mullins stable I’d object to how my horse’s targets are dictated by what races other horses in the yard go for. I also believe riding instructions for some have been very questionable. eg Don Poli was ridden asthough a doubtful stayer in the Gold Cup.
Gigginstown call the shots on their horses and that has been glaringly obvious for the past number of seasons. There have been many instances whereby Gigginstown have overruled Mullins in recent seasons. On the riding of Don Poli, I’d lay the blame much closer to the door of his pilot than his trainer. He’s a horse that obviously takes some knowing and am sure he’d have finished closer had Cooper been on board.
Whatever the reason for the split, it can only be good for Irish racing. Having too much power in one yard isn’t healthy. Gordon Elliott has made huge strides in recent seasons, he has become one of the strongest forces either side of the sea and his rapid ascension looks set to continue. Exciting times ahead.
Regarding the reasons behind this, the figure I’ve seen mentioned is an extra €5 per day per horse. This comes to over €100,000 per annum. It may not seem much considering Gigginstown’s likely annual spend but could be significant nonetheless.
On a slightly related note, does anyone feel Colm Murphy may regret his decision to retire now? You would think he’d have been in line for a view of these given his Festival success with Empire Of Dirt this year. However, given the decision was made even after the arrival of several of the Potts horses, you’d imagine he has other ventures in the pipeline. He would likely have had his strongest string for years.
Casual abuse is O’Leary’s stock in trade. He has described the European commission as “morons”, the airport operator BAA as “overcharging rapists”. Britain’s air traffic control service is “poxy”, British Airways are “expensive bastards” and travel agents are “fuckers” who should be “taken out and shot”.
His frugality can reach the point of pedantry. Crew have to pay for their own training, uniforms and meals. Head office staff must supply their own pens and are even forbidden from charging their mobile phones at work. O’Leary refuses to recognise trade unions – the Irish union Impact claims it has 270 victimisation cases outstanding between Ryanair pilots and management.
Above both quotes from this article admittedly 11 years old but I think says something about the man Willie Mullins is dealing with here. His office staff had to bring THEIR OWN PENS to work!!
Mullins claims this is the first increase in fees in ten years.
I am a big fan of most of the Gigginstown horses, exactly the type of horses I think we all like to see. I think Mullins has done a fine job with them and I feel very sorry to see the likes of Apple’s Jade go elsewhere.
I also think there will be an extra determination around the Mullins yard, if possible, come March.
Worth noting its not just the training of their horses, by the Champion trainer, that Gigginstown will miss, its also the buying of many of them.
Although they do source many of their own stock, Mullins has, in addition to his procurement for Ricci and Wylie, bought very well for Gigginstown.More to this than meets the eye, I think. Giggi is on record as a ‘results-based business’ and, like it or not, they move horses when the results aren’t as expected (just as they sack jockeys). So I started thinking about this in terms of ‘results’, but through a Giggi lens.
Look at who delivered Giggi their owner’s title – Elliott and Morris (GC and GN), and then at how they might regard their own (significant) contribution to WPM’s Irish trainer’s title. Then I keep casting my mind back to Cheltenham 2016 and Giggi’s presence (or lack of it) in the Mullins’/Walsh benefit fest – and contrast that with the Ricci/Wylie Show. Part of the problem for WPM in managing the egos is that all 3 ‘big’ owners needed their place in the limelight @ Prestbury Park. For Giggi, The Don in the GC was redemption, but they lost NMH and many of their other runners (many of them Mullins-trained) either fell, or were down the field. Then, in their ‘own’ race, Valseur Lido (trained by Mullins – whom Ruby fell off of in the Lexus, remember!) was the runner up to Vautour – who even Rich Ricci thought was running in the GC! Road to Riches was in 3rd that day, targeted at the Ryanair because he didn’t really stay the GC distance. That must have really rubbed it in, especially for an outfit that calls the shots.
Then factor in the future, particularly how Apple Jade might fare in a stable where Annie & Vroum Vroum are the star mare and super-sub etc. etc. & I think GE and MM have their rewards for last season’s results (and quality replacements for losses), whilst HdB gets to try with Valseur Lido.
The fee issue, I sense, is a mask for this. Whilst I think WPM is right to insist on parity between his owners, I can also see why MO’L might not see it in quite the same terms. I also found it a little hard to believe that this is the first time in ten years that WPM has raised his training fees … like costs have not gone up in ten years?
Whatever, like everyone else, I think this can only be good for Irish NH racing.
Two top Gigginstown horses in Mullins yard were Apple’s Jade and Don Poli.
You’ve only got to look at how Un De Sceaux missed his Champion Hurdle chance because Mullins wanted Hurricane Fly to win… And at the merry-go-round of Cheltenham targets this year. Plus the fact this stable still has the last two Champion Hurdle winners. Not difficult to imagine the trainer wanting Apple’s Jade aimed instead at the Stayers Hurdle or Mares. Especially as Mullins needs to keep Ricci happy this term, after over-ruling his biggest owner over Vautour’s Gold Cup non-participation. So there’s also a question whether Don Poli will be allowed to run in the 2017 Blue Riband?
Value Is EverythingDon’t think there’s much doubt that this has nothing to do with fees, and I’d go along with the last 2 posts by Titus and Ginger, as being closer to the real issue.
It will make things easier for Mullins to place and I don’t think it will make any difference to how many graded races he wins. No time for O’Leary as he has not loyalty and his treatment of Davy Russell was disgraceful. In fact a thoroughly dislakable man as is his company.
As speculation goes, and it’s all we can do here, Titus Oates makes a very solid case. I suppose one argument could be that O’Leary wanted the Gold Cup a hell of a lot more than the Ryanair and might not have been at all upset to see Vautour switch to the Ryanair.
As T.O. said, O’Leary’s on record as a results-based man: he took horses away from Sandra Hughes 18 months after Dessie died and she was struggling to keep things going. A man like O’Leary doesn’t get to where he is in business, especially the airline business, by taking account of people’s feelings.
Still, he met his match in ‘Oor Wullie’!
Dessie Hughes death was tragic, but that’s no reason to keep horses with a trainer who’s (after 18 months) proven not up to the job.
Value Is EverythingIt will make things easier for Mullins to place and I don’t think it will make any difference to how many graded races he wins. No time for O’Leary as he has not loyalty and his treatment of Davy Russell was disgraceful. In fact a thoroughly dislakable man as is his company.
Gigginstown was in danger of losing a young jockey thought to be Champion class. Had they kept Cooper as second jockey he’d have either gone to Britain or – Walsh retired – and gone to Mullins. In the opinion of O’Leary (and me, and many others) Cooper is a better jockey than Russell. Do you expect the better jockey to remain second-string, Mickey?
Value Is Everything
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