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What’s he supposed to do .. Not try ? , maybe the other “businesses” should get as motivated and professional , an example would be not using a unfit and rusty jockey …
Another example would be not withdrawing an odds on favourite from a valuable Grade 1 because of the ground.
Ground which was good and well watered. Described by Paul Nicholls this morning as beautiful and from which none of his runners returned jarred up.
Posted in here last night (Saturday) asking how he did it, and there has been three pages since.
As this forum doesn’t have a ‘like’ feature, or a ‘quote’ feature, I will just note that greenasgrass’ two posts on p21 educated me. They are as follows…
“He also has what Paul Nicholls, Nicky Henderson, Dan Skelton, Gordon Elliott and, sadly, now also Henry de Bromhead don’t have- a son to build the dynasty for. That keeps the fire burning- you could see it clear as day today.” Great point!
The post about him entertaining the owners ended “He knows what makes people tick.” Another great point, very well put.
Interesting and informative debates like this keep this forum worth visiting.
“He also has what Paul Nicholls, Nicky Henderson, Dan Skelton, Gordon Elliott and, sadly, now also Henry de Bromhead don’t have- a son to build the dynasty for. That keeps the fire burning- you could see it clear as day today.” Great point!”
Plenty of daughters though. Are they not capable of training or handing a dynasty on to? I would imagine a female Jessie Harrington will be handing the baton onto a daughter when she’s ready. Dan Skelton is a relatively young man and expects to be training for the next 30 years or so, plenty of time to have sons and daughters in that time.
Just to add on to comments about Nicky Henderson. I dont think he has been the same trainer since the day he lost Simonsig. I think thats when his nerve, bottle (call it what you will) went or at least started its downhill trend to over cautiousness.
I dont mind Willie Mullins cleaning up everywhere but certainly do agree the Brits need to up their game. We definitely need to be sending more horses over to run in Ireland. We cant beat him if we dont run against him at every available opportunity.
Its not so much boring as dangerous to the future of NH racing,here & in Ireland.
If one person has the large majority of the best horses it will become a turn off.There has always been competition between top stables,nobody has dominated like Mullins does.
Its like the Premier League only have 4 or 5 clubs effectively.Say Man City,Man City B,Man City C,the same with Liverpool,Arsenal etc.I can see a situation as with Arkle in the 60’s that their will have to be be some way of accounting for Mullins runners,either by giving them more weight (including in conditions races) or having 2 handicaps made,one with his horses & one without.
Me I am deeply suspicious of one person,country,et al producing astounding performances over & over especially when the emphasis is on stamina.
We used to go to Punchestown @ 20 years ago and I’m sure it was pretty rare for an English horse to win anything. Can’t help but feel it’s even more difficult now so I can understand why trainers don’t bother.
The problem with the current situation is that Closutton has become such a behemoth that it’s almost becoming a monopoly in Grade 1 races. He can send battalions whilst other stables might just have the one runner to try and compete.
I know why owners go to him under the mantra of if you can’t beat them then join them. Yet again it was a British owner winning the National on Saturday. The 3rd placed horse was too. Those British owners might like to consider where such dominance (and it’s getting worse year on year) is going to leave British racing?
It will also have an effect on breeding as if only the ‘dregs’ are left after the Mullins large team and contacts source all the best horses, what then is the point of buying a horse if they can only compete in low grade races and barely recoup any money?
I’m starting to think that some financial incentive should be made to encourage owners to have horses trained in Britain if they are aimed at Grade 1 races.
No doubt we will still be discussing this after the Cheltenham & Aintree Festivals next year, and the year after and so on.
Looking at results from exactly 20 years ago at Punchestown we had 4 winners which isn’t too bad.
Hendersons It’s a Dream 13/2 won the big bumper while Jonjo won the big mares bumper with Refinement at 6/1.
Lucy Wadham won the Champion 4yo Hurdle with United at 6/1 and Ferdy Murphy won the Stayers Hurdle with Carlys Quest at 25/1.As we struggle at Cheltenham now, compared to 20 years ago we are likely to struggle going to Ireland but see no reason why you wouldn’t want to run a “champion” or good horse like Constitution Hill there.
Twenty years ago, Aintree was a good example of top horses being spread around multiple stables.
The 2005 meeting had four Northern trained winners on day one – 3 for Nicky Richards, 1 for Howard Johnson. And what one might politely call lesser lights had a winner at the meeting – Henry Daly, Kevin Bishop, Sara Williams, Peter Bowen.
And eight different Irish trainers had a winner – only one winner was trained by Willie Mullins. In many ways it was that one that was the launch pad for him – Hedgehunter winning the National.
I think headlines like Sporting Life’s ‘Huge squad for Mullins at Ayr’ give the impression of an irresistible invasion force such as Hitler had lined up against defenceless Britain… Oh, ok, maybe not so bad then?
“Yet again it was a British owner winning the National on Saturday.”
Ahem. His wife’s name is still beside his on the racecard. She grew up near the Mullins apparently and she was the one who wanted a horse. No surprise that he wanted to keep the horse there-“Following the passing of his beloved wife, Stewart told the Racing Post: “After Sadie died, I went over to Willie to watch Nick Rockett work with Fergal O’Brien as he had a horse running in the Kerry National and Fergal’s daughter was working for Willie.
“I was in a tough place, missing Sadie, and Willie said he had two horses, Vauban and Absurde, running in the Melbourne Cup and asked if I wanted to come out.”
There you go. Fergal O’Brien and Willie Mullins don’t need mental wellness awareness “Hey, How are ya?” campaigns to know what to do when they see somebody struggling. I’m sure plenty of GB trainers would have done the same. But if people feel cared for where they are, why would they go back?
“3rd placed horse was too”
Yes…and the 4th horse was Irish owned, trained in GB.Rumour came over from Ireland this morning saying there’s a £3million training facility to be built in England for Patrick Mullins to train out of…..
I suppose in the long run it’s cheaper that ferries and horsebockses.
He does well in keeping the owners on board in regard telling a owner that his/her horse that is rated superior to the rest of the yard that she will run in the Mares hurdle for a flippant example
Blackbeard to conquer the World
“Rumour came over from Ireland this morning saying there’s a £3million training facility to be built in England for Patrick Mullins to train out of…..”
If it comes to fruition we could be in with a shout in the Prestbury Cup.
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