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His owners don’t mind racing for less money: https://www.independent.ie/sport/willie-mullins-irked-by-vroum-vroum-mag-fine/34653876.html
“The comments on this forum show how much Millins is dividing racing.”
Not really. Everyone has a different opinion and that’s fine. I quite enjoy reading the different perspectives on things. The Bowen vs Townend best jockey discussion. Even the memorial argument. Which horse you’re backing and why is why I joined this forum, but I stayed for the chats about sportmanship, ethics, welfare, ambition, greatness and amusing memes.
“Is it feeding his ego? Does someone get immense satisfaction in crushing all competition knowing full well they do not have the ammo to compete? Bit like scoring 900 for 3 against a much weaker bowling attack. Beating a Division 2 team 9-0. Beating a tennis player ranked well below you by a triple bagel?”
In some little maiden at Ludlow yeah it’s annoying. Mostly driven by the golden child with his tick list of GB tracks to win at as there are no Irish worlds left to conquer (although amusingly, he’s got a few odds on shots beaten). At the “Jumps Finale- Where Champions Are Crowned” the more good horses the better.“wanting a complete monopoly on all Grade 1 races across the UK & Ireland”
Steady on. He had no runners in the Betfair, the Tingle Creek or the King George. Fact to File won the Ryanair, but in the 4 headline races at the Cheltenham Festival, he had 5 runners in total, no winners and only two finishers, Winter Fog and Galopin des Champs.
Despite this, 3 of the races were won by Irish trained horses. Take out the Irish horses and the total finishers (not just placed horses-finishers altogether) would have been:Champion Hurdle: Golden Ace by 9l from Burdett Road
QMCC: Jonbon. Alone.
Stayers: Lucky Place by 12l from Gowel Road
Gold Cup: The Real Whacker by 2.5l from Royal Pagaille.
And that’s it.British NH racing is in a state o’ chassis but it’s not Willie’s fault.
“It will have serious long-term repercussions across the industry for NH racing if anyone cares to take their head out of the sand for just a few minutes.”
Irish racing is doing a bit better than British racing but who knows why? State support perhaps. A lower national minimum wage and not voting to leave the EU, giving a larger pool of stable staff (quite a few of Willie’s are French I believe). More people fewer generations removed from farming, who want to buy land and horses when they get rich, rather than football clubs and superyachts.I really like and agree with your comments, green. The part about Irish racing doing better than British becomes a bigger issue every year. Just look at the number of British trainers moving their operations to France. And how many new British based millionaires (or better billionaires) have discovered a new affection for horse racing. Having voted “yes” for leave surely has changed a lot and without the Irish competitors it would be a similar picture with Skelton simply destroying “grandpa-and-probably-soon-to-retire Nicky “once-in-a-while-I still-get-a-good-one” Paul.
Who else is there in GB?
“More people fewer generations removed from farming, who want to buy land and horses when they get rich”.
I think that is an important point. I used to go racing in Ireland quite a lot in the pre-lockdown world. There genuinely is a different vibe around Irish tracks. It isn’t just a sport, it is a way of life. And it is still central in Irish culture, whereas racing in Britain is becoming more peripheral bar one or two big meetings.
“Who else is there in GB?”
No one really. The Tizzards were dining at the top table for a while thanks to Cue Card, Native River and Thistlecrack but are nowhere near that level now.
After Skelton, Mullins, Nicholls and Henderson, the table is:
5th Olly Murphy
6th Nigel Twiston Davies
7th Venetia Williams
8th Jonjo & AJ O’Neill
9th Fergal O’Brien
10th Joe TizzardI would love to see Rebecca Curtis getting more decent horses.
She clearly deserves more attention as she isn’t someone to rush a horse or tell the world that “best I’ve ever trained crap”. Seems to be a very shrewd trainer when it comes to picking the right targets.Olly Murphy on the other hand seems to have quite decent and talented horses with loads of potential, especially over longer trips. But, somehow he doesn’t move further to the top of the table. Strong Leader (last season) and Itchy Feet (2020) are his only G1 winners to this date, even though there could be potential for more. He simply doesn’t have a close to G1 class chaser at the moment….
Forget the trainers title. It looks a very good card
we say jumps racing doesn’t revolve around Cheltenham then bemoan when top horses turn up at Sandown…
Charles Darwin to conquer the World
Exactly Nathan
Whether one is going to Sandown tomorrow or just watching on tv it looks an absolutely fabulous day’s racing, and, for me, ripe to get stuck into with a few punts.
What a way to end the jumps season
CAS,
It’s the names that aren’t in that top ten as well – the likes of Pipe, Hobbs, Bailey that would have been there in the past. And the promising ones that got their start with Nicholls or Henderson, but can’t make the step up – Pauling, Longsdon, Derham, Fry.
But there are five Irish trainers in the top fifty and they have collected over £6M in prize money – which is money that won’t be available to buy better horses for local stables.
Enormous credit to Skelton that he’s even close to Mullins, given that he has just five horses with six figure earnings this season, while Mullins has nine in this country alone and goodness knows how many in total.
I recall a visit to a young, ambitious trainer about twelve years ago, keen to show off his facilities, which were excellent. Gleaming new barns, uphill AW gallop, schooling grounds, well equipped office, etc. As we sat in his luxury owners suite and talked about his recent Grade 1 winner, he asked what I thought he needed to make it into the top five and eventually be number one. I said he’d need at least five owners willing to spend a million pounds each year to buy and keep horses, because the top yards always have a steady supply of new horses each year to dominate the novice programs.
And that’s what Mullins has – but this side of the Irish Sea, those millionaire owners aren’t concentrated in one stable, but spread too thinly across twenty or more trainers. And therefore those trainers just don’t have the firepower to buy the best horses.
Pauling is 11th on the list. I was surprised to find he is not in the top 10.
Longsdon and Fry seem to have gone into reverse gear. Tom Lacey as well. All these trainers had McManus horses at some point but I am not sure if he supports them now.
Jamie Snowden had a Grade 1 winner at Aintree but otherwise hasn’t made the breakthrough some people were expecting.
It is clearly not easy to make any impact when up against the Mullins juggernaut. But I don’t like the idea of measures being taken to penalise Mullins for being too successful. If anything like that was done, I wouldn’t be surprised if our learned friends got involved.
It is another of those situations where neither side is wholly right or wrong. But as it stands Mullins does at least run his horses and they are usually reasonable prices for punters at Cheltenham and Aintree.
It would only be boring if Mullins was winning every race easily with long odds on chances owned by the same owner. But he isn’t.
The only issues I do have are Mullins taking over the Grand National and his fake amateur son steering a succession of long odds on chances home in novice hurdles at small tracks and thinking it is an achievement (it isn’t). That is boring!
Too early to say Mullins is dominating the trainers championship and it is boring or unfair. He’s won it once and might win this year, yet to be decided. The debate may have some value in 3 or so years if he wins this year and the next 2 for example.
As for Skelton, imo it raises his profile that he is competitive in the title race, he has mentioned his horses for next season are his best yet, so an opportunity to get a big enough lead early season so Mullins doesn’t get a sniff at the Championship in the back end of the season.
Mullins can only win the Championship if he has the Grand National winner. He cannot guarantee that every season.
I recall a time when British horses regularly won big races in Ireland. I don’t remember anyone complaining about that.
As for Chris Gordon whining about Mullins having runners at Plumpton, Paul Nicholls had two winners at Sedgefield on the Tuesday of Cheltenham week. Should he have been banned from having runners because he doesn’t usually have them at that venue?
“There genuinely is a different vibe around Irish tracks. It isn’t just a sport, it is a way of life. And it is still central in Irish culture, whereas racing in Britain is becoming more peripheral bar one or two big meetings.”
True.“After Skelton, Mullins, Nicholls and Henderson, the table is:
5th Olly Murphy
6th Nigel Twiston Davies
7th Venetia Williams
8th Jonjo & AJ O’Neill
9th Fergal O’Brien
10th Joe Tizzard”The 5th learned his trade as assistant trainer to Elliott in Ireland. 8th and 9th are Irishmen living and training in GB.
“Who else is there in GB?”
Harry Derham still might make the breakthrough. He had misfortune with his gallops washing away, and buying what looks like being an expensive lemon in Imagine. But he has had some success picking up decent handicaps and has taken horses to Ireland as well. He’s personable and already has a few sportsman owners on board- he could try to snare a few more golfers and cricketers and maybe try to get some footballers as well. Those types sometimes get their friends and teammates into racing too.“As for Skelton, imo it raises his profile that he is competitive in the title race,”
Completely agree, he has gone up in my estimation in the past few weeks, gets the mic shoved in his face every day asking about the title race and he has a nice blend of ambition, good sense and graciousness in these interviews and zero bitterness, blame or defeatism.“he has mentioned his horses for next season are his best yet, so an opportunity to get a big enough lead early season so Mullins doesn’t get a sniff at the Championship in the back end of the season.”
I really hope The New Lion stays sound, progresses and wins a clutch of G1s for him. If he could happen upon a star staying hurdler as well so much the better, there are plenty of valuable races in GB for them.“Mullins can only win the Championship if he has the Grand National winner.”
Doesn’t that encapsulate the problem?
One trainer gets winner after winner all year; the other has (admittedly unprecedented) success in one race.
The entire “championship” is a farce.
I’m more interested in the horses I don’t really care who wins the trainer or jockey title.
The more I know the less I understand.
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