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Maybe they were put off by the Mullins entourage don’t assume his fellow countrymen are endeared to it. The Dublin Racing Festival is on home soil and wouldn’t involve the expense of Cheltenham.
The more I know the less I understand.
My point exactly rtb. With Cheltenham prices so high more sense to go to the drf. Very large crowd went to the drf from the uk.Presumably the cost didn’t put them off.
I don’t think Cheltenham will quite understand the whole ‘cost to the customer’ aspect Mickey. They’ve been milking them for years now and will continue to keep going to the well and expect the same result.
The decision makers don’t pay admission, don’t have to stand around in all weathers jammed shoulder to shoulder in the stands, line up for expensive food and over-priced drinks, or pay for hiked accommodation. If they don’t ‘feel’ the issues, then I doubt much will change. It’ll just be meetings full of Corporate speak and as you say, tinkering around the edges.
I do wonder if the decision makers actually care or understand what THE FESTIVAL actually represents. I think the focus has been on maximizing every single penny it can earn. Making it 4 days seemed to change the elitism of the races and allow horses to dodge each other, allowing more heavy odds-on favourites, along with lesser quality races.
Then on top of that they wanted to increase the event to five days!!! I’d suggest the quality of the event wasn’t top of their reasoning to suggest that, but perhaps the thought of lots of additional ££££’s may have been hovering around in front of their eyes.The damage has been done now and it will be difficult to reverse.
It doesn’t help that so many of the big races are almost a foregone conclusion and unfortunately, most are trained by Willie Mullins. Mullins seems to get the ‘blame’ from some quarters, but it’s misdirected, because it’s up to the other trainers to improve their standard of competition.
There are much bigger issues that desperately need addressing in racing, especially NH, than how many winners Willie Mullins has at Cheltenham.
He’s going to have another clear up at Fairyhouse today plus 2 near certs at Cork
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
Not as painful as my acca when a cruising Anotherway went down …. Mullins still won the race mind
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
Seems elliot stable has not got the ammo it used to have and de bromhead seems to target Cheltenham. That was scary at fairyhouse. Maybe it will change in time but not in the near future. The owners obviously enjoy their horses being at closutton.
Mullins are the new Obriens …. The stable is going nowhere
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
I haven’t read the piece but I think Segal’s correct about Mullins underperforming at Cheltenham. If you look at the races he won, they were all races he was well entitled to win according to the betting and by sheer weight of numbers in a lot of cases like the Baring Bingham and Triumph. There were quite a few flops in there Embassy Gardens, Jade De Grugy, all of his Albert Bartlett group, Facile Vega, El Fabiolo etc Dinoblue didn’t get the job done as fav. He didn’t win what looked a very winnable Supreme despite having half the field. I thought he’d dominate far more than he did given the weight of numbers and relative lack of competition.
Well done Olly Murphy taking Brewin’upastorm to Fairyhouse to turn over a Mullins’ odds on shot.
The more I know the less I understand.
Yes, I’m pleased that he and Sophie Leech have sent over horses to win at the big Irish festivals. Hopefully we get some GB runners at Punchestown.
Elliott’s runners still suffering some postviral effects I think. 2 winners out of 35 runners over weekend for a strike rate of <6%. That was a bad dose they had, and I suspect Henderson’s horses had the same thing. On the bright side, some well handicapped horses for next year.
Interview with Simon Munir https://www.sportinglife.com/racing/news/simon-munir-on-the-secrets-of-the-recent-double-green-success/217019
Although Mullins+Kirk don’t do the buying, the approach taken by M+S/Bromley chimes with the usual Closutton MO
“Intellectually, it is more satisfying to buy a horse for a reasonable price rather than simply buying the most expensive horse.”
(And the value option as well as the intellectual exercise I suppose).He also points out that at Closutton you essentially get four trainers for the price of one.
If you think Willie Mullins’ domination is boring to NH. then look what Red Bull/Max Verstappen is doing to Formula 1 … or what the New Irritating Thread is doing to the lounge for that matter 🤔
Mullins domination is amateur status compared to the domination there has been in F1 – the current Red Bull run is nothing compared to what the Mercs did prior to that with 8 consecutive Constructors and Driver’s World Titles (Hamilton winning seven and Rosberg winning the other one).
At least with racing the smaller stables can punch above their weight and win against the big boys – the Ballysax Stakes that was run earlier today was won by the 50-1 outsider (ridden by Seamie Heffernan ironically) in which Aidan had 3 of the 5 runners including the odds on favourite.
Yup formula 1 has been tedious for a decade with Mercedes and Hamilton and now red bull and verstappen. Strange how it wasn’t boring when Hamilton was winning. Also I note in the nba audiences well down and its the non Americans who are dominating like jokic. Much as we want to dismiss the idea it’s boring when those from other shores dominate there are a few instances of this in the last few years. In the nfl where the big stars are all usa based figures, well up. Just observing the trends. I’ll leave it up to others to dissect the data.
I used to love Formula 1. Even used to drive over to my cousins in Birmingham to watch it with him. But I haven’t watched it for years.
We like to see winners for sure but don’t you dare go and be too successful and dominate your sport because we can’t have that and that will cause people to turn on the individual and/or team and try to tear them down a peg or to.
When Steve Davis first broke through in Snooker people were supporting him but then he started winning virtually every competition and slowy people started to turn against him and were starting to root for him to lose or at least pick his opponent when asked who they wanted to win.
Mullins quite simply has put in place a system that is far better at sourcing the raw material to which he can then bring through to win a lot of the big races (that has taken a lot of hard work and years to achieve) …..is he a far better trainer than his contemporaries…..probably not as I would imagine that most of the top trainers would be able to replicate his success if they were in his position with his set up.
That being said you can’t blame him or even try to put in place stipulations to restrict him from running too many of his horses in certain races simply because ‘it is not good for the sport to have someone so dominant’.
He has set a new bar and it is up to the other trainers to either step up to that bar or raise it further.
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