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Cas Kennedy is 2 or 3 falls from being finished , Bowen is available and very very good , common sense should prevail
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
“Elliott ….. needs a jockey.”
Elliott needs a buyer. Yet again he has gone to the marquee sale this week and spent squillions on a couple of beautiful looking beautifully bred maiden point winners when he’d be better off playing the percentages and buying about 20 wiry French horses from unknown sires for the same price.
Elliott is no worse than anyone else at keeping them sound- the big beautiful expensive Classic Getaway and Grangeclare West both ended up with Willie, both crocked- but you need a bigger squad of mid priced horses to make up for the crocks.
(I’d love to see Shark Hanlon let loose at the horses in training sales all over Europe with a bevy of translators and a couple of million euro in his pocket. He’d buy you a lorryload of future winners and you’d have change to buy yourself a helicopter to go and watch them racing).
GG he had plenty of ammunition , what he didn’t have was a jockey fit and in form , Pied Piper should have won , nowt to do with horse or trainer
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
The 18-10 is a decieving score. Ireland won 4 out of the big 5 races and 9 out of 13 group ones and had 2,3,4,5 in some of those races. The first 4 home in the triumph were Willie mullins etc etc. He has both el fabilo and enegamene and el fabiolo for next seasons champion chase. Galopin des champs could be the best since arkle IMHO. Allaho and envoy Allen for the Ryanair and a huge team for the stayers. With virtually all the top novices in Ireland the domination is unlikely to get lesser possibly greater.
All this talk of it being boring in nonsense. Nobody was saying this when Paul Nicholls had kauto,Denham,big bucks etc.
Although it was great Nicholls had a couple of winners Henderson had a very poor Cheltenham and while Skelton did well he is not competing at the top table.
It was a brilliant weeks racing and with imparre etc passe,el fabiolo,ch,envoi Allen ,energuamene,Lossiemouth and gdc we had some brilliant winners.
Punters don’t care where its trained whether scots ,Welsh,Irish etc. I just love watching brilliant horse racing and we got that in spades and possibly one of the best hurdlers and chasers in racing history. I cant see how you can find that boring.
Petty rant over. I’m away for a wee lie down.🤣🤣Mullins had something like 76 runners at the festival and 6 winners so I’m not getting carried away with his so called success nor am I convinced that the approach is much different from hit and hope .
What I am sure about is that its cynical and makes the sport look farcical when owners or trainers are mob handed in any particular race and its therefore unhealthy for the long term survival of the industry.“Nobody was saying this when Paul Nicholls had kauto,Denham,big bucks etc.”
Even at his peak, Nicholls never had more than five winners at any one festival. In fact, there was a time when trainers were lucky to get two winners at the meeting; nowadays, if Closutton only had a brace of winners, there’d be a lengthy inquest into what had gone wrong.
I suppose that racing reflects life in the 21st century: the rich get richer, while everybody else is left to fight over the scraps.
Mullins is one yard, but he doesn’t have one owner.
And it seems to me that all his horses are openly campaigned, and raced on their merits, often against one another.
It really doesn’t bother me.
“Nice to land my 4/1 ante-post bet with Lossiemouth, but the fact she beat six horses from her own yard completely ruined the experience of the win and pick up for me.”
Said no punter EVER.
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It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"It’s up to the smaller trainers to make the most of what they have , Neville with the real whacker is a prime example
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
Neville had to leave Ireland, because he couldn’t compete here. The wholly positive view of Irish racing concerns me. People like Neville used to be what Irish racing was all about, now it’s about wealthy English-based owners bolstering one or two stables. There is a big marketing machine in operation, and I suspect we (the Irish taxpayer) are funding it. I’d much prefer if Neville could have sent his horse over from here, rather than having to move his entire operation.
I rate Willie Mullin’s as the best trainer. He hasn’t amassed such a powerful yard by fluke. He isn’t, however, dominant other than with juveniles. Even then he lets them race on merit so I don’t see any harm.
Nicholls could easily put up more of a fight if he looked at spreading his stock more evenly. As it is he seems only to be interested in buying future staying chasers as seems to be the preference of most in the National Hunt game. Willie has as many, if not more, hurdlers and genuine speed horses than any other big name trainer with the exception of Nicky Henderson who is on the decline in terms of numbers and overall quality.
I don’t think anyone expected Nicholls to get more winners than Henderson this week.
Take Constitution Hill out and Henderson does look light on quality now, with Shishkin looking unreliable.
Nicky didn’t have any good young hurdlers this year except Jet Powered and the wheels came off him. If he can come right next year he could be an Arkle contender but it’s a big if. I hope he gets some decent Supreme contenders next year.
V hard to compete with what is obviously a huge and professional organisation; getting too much like the flat. The days of Danoli are sadly gone.
Having said that, Willie does not shy at running them against each other (tho sometimes he has no choice). Perhaps he has learned from losing a Gold Cup (Vautour vs Djakadam) and a Champion Hurdle (Annie Power vs Hurricane Fly)“I rate Willie Mullin’s as the best trainer. He hasn’t amassed such a powerful yard by fluke.”
Perhaps not a fluke, but he was nowhere near his current level until that magical day when Richie Rich turned up in his yard and provided the money to buy horses by the dozen.
Twenty years ago, NH season 2002/03, Mullins trained just 32 winners in the entire Irish season and sat 6th in the trainers table. The only ex-pat millionaire among his owners then was Trevor Hemmings, who had just a handful of horses, but one of them was Hedgehunter. His National win gave him the higher profile that led Ricci to his door and the winners that followed in his colours persuaded others, who’d never considered Mullins before, to jump on the bandwagon. McManus, O’Leary, Bloom etc were not on his owners list in 2003, but they certainly are now or have been until recently.
The numbers tell the tale – this season so far in Ireland, Mullins has run 266 different horses, Elliott even more, 340. In England, Nicholls has run 159, Henderson 132 – figures correct as at last weekend.
It’s a numbers game and to get the numbers you need money. Wealthy owners who can afford not just the purchase prices, but don’t mind paying training fees for thirty or forty horses, as long as three or four of them are top class. Mullins also has the network of contacts that ensure he gets the best horses – five of his six winners last week were bought after one or two runs in France. Twenty years ago, those horses went to Nicholls, but he no longer has the owners with the money.
Full credit to Mullins for taking full advantage of the situation. And for the fact that he remains at heart a lover of good horses, as his eloquent words after the Champion Hurdle indicate.
The better prizemoney in Ireland is a pull as are any tax breaks. Hendersons decline has been gradual and i can’t see Nicholls getting back to the days of kauto etc. Skelton is good with those just below the top table. Tizard and pipe should be having festival winners but don’t have the quality. It’s not going to change for a good few years at the earliest.
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