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Firstly, let me say that I have nothing against the Closutton trainer- I’ve never met him, but he seems like a smashing fellow and a true gentleman whenever he’s on the television.
However, I was looking through the five-day entries for the Cheltenham festival and the overwhelming numerical dominance of Willie’s novices (and I’ve included the bumper, as it’s for young horses) stuck out like a sore thumb.
Bumper 7/25
Triumph 3/13
Supreme 8/17
Ballymore 10/18
Albert Bartlett 6/25
Mares’ Novice 9/25
Total 43/123 34.95%
36/98 36.73% if we exclude the bumper.Okay, I’ve omitted the handicaps but Gaelic Warrior and State Man, to name but two, are potential Grade One horses who will be running in handicaps.
Arkle 5/14
Turners 9/16
Brown Advisory 5/17
NH Chase 4/16
23/63 36.51%There are many horses with multiple entries at this stage, but even so it’s not healthy for the sport to have over one third of all entries for the flagship novice events to hail from one stable. A bit like with Aidan O’Brien on the flat, Willie has become so dominant that resistance appears to be futile; I suppose racing reflects life in a certain way, in that the rich get richer while everybody else fights for the scraps. 🤷♂️
It’s all becoming a bit boring, in my opinion.
The man is a genius and it’s not his fault he has so many good horses but yes, it is absolutely boring.
The Ballymore in particular where he has more than half the entries at the 5 day dec stage is borderline ridiculous.
I don’t think he is dominant personally but each to their own, Elliott probably has more in the handicaps and De Bromhead is more than capable as we saw last year with smaller numbers. I wouldn’t be rushing to back Mullins as top trainer next week. The numbers side to it is a much bigger problem in Ireland than here when you see Mullins and Elliott with 75% of the Irish National field. Can’t see that ever happening here.
As far as Aidan O’Brien goes… Appleby wiped the floor last year and could be the one to dominate going forwards.
I think coolmore will be back on top within a couple of years through Wooton basset,camelot and St marks basilica. As for mullins it’s not his fault owners want to send him their best horses. He’s clearly a brilliant trainer so why moan. Nobody moaned when Paul Nicholls was in his pomp iirc.
Mullins seems to have the strongest bunch of novices I can remember so his dominance won’t just go away. Not for a few years anyway.
“Appleby wiped the floor last year and could be the one to dominate going forwards.”
One season doesn’t mark a new trend. Let’s see how things go for a bit longer.
“Nobody moaned when Paul Nicholls was in his pomp iirc.”
Nicholls didn’t have over 1/3 of all the entries in the novice events.
How many Grade 1s did Mullins get last year open or novice? Genuine question. Appreciate It and Sir Gerhard off top of my head and he was only there after the Gordon Elliott debarcle. De Bromhead took the Champion Chase, Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup. I think Mullins has been more dominant in the past. Ireland clearly dominate that much isn’t up for much debate.
Galileos passing will have a big impact on Coolmore going forwards until they find the next super sire. Frankel was the go to daddy last year.
Given the strength and sheer number of young horses in the yard, how long is it until Willie cleans up in all the novice events at the festival?
It could even happen this week.
Interesting statistics. The main thing which bothers me is the splitting of the horses, especially the Novices.
Even ignoring how tedious the endless ‘will-he-won’t-he’ debates are, if Sir Gerhard was with any other trainer, an Authorized gelding out of a flat Mare, I couldn’t see him being in anything but the Supreme.
Thats on the owners though – it is understandable if they leave it all to Mullins to decide given the mans record.
BUY THE SUN
Not just Mullins, but the Irish takeover as a whole. A one time Festival attender and enthusiast, I’m totally turned off by it now. They might as well stage it at Punchestown and be done with it.
First day declarations – 95 runners, of which 49 are Irish trained. In the Arkle, they have 7/11 runners, in the N H Chase 5/7 runners, in the Mares Hurdle 7/12 runners, in the Fred Winter a ridiculous 14/22 runners.
And as yesterday clearly demonstrated, our handicappers are still being taken for fools by Irish challengers. Under the archaic system the BHA refuse to update, that winner (who will go up at least 12lbs on Tuesday) gets to run in the County Hurdle with a 5lb penalty.
Nothing against Irish runners but surely there has to be a limit of horses any trainer can run in these handicaps. The Pertemps has 24 runners Elliot said he is running 7, Mullins will be another 5 or so and then the rest on top.
I’ve got a terrible record selecting Mullins’s runners. I’ll just select them all and that will sink him!
I remember M Dickinson what was it the first five home in the Gold Cup, but concede I do not remember him having such a say in many races overall.
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