FEATURE WILLIE MULLINS
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plethora of favourites for the 2023 Festival, which when added to his current tally of 88 winners would take him rather neatly to a century. Even the mention of an impending century has long been something of a commentator’s curse in cricket, and as you’d perhaps expect Mullins is keen to sweep such talk away towards the boundary. “I don’t ever think about accolades or records and I’m always amazed when people tell me stats about what we’ve actually won,” he says. “Getting winners is a relief.
he knows the identity of the seven races he is yet to win at the Cheltenham Festival as a trainer – which for the record are the Ultima Handicap Chase, the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle, the Glenfarclas Cross Country Chase, the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Handicap Chase, the Pertemps Network Final, the Magners Festival Plate Handicap Chase and Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup. Unsurprisingly it’s an exam which is passed with flying colours, and while he is slightly pessimistic about his chances of completing the set, there is one
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We’re not aiming to beat 10 or anything like that, just to get on the board if we can and hopefully a few of the right horses win. Only half of the favourites tend win at Cheltenham as a rule of thumb, so that (six) wouldn’t be a bad number if we get somewhere near it!
“The competition is immense and there’s no given when you’re there”
race on that list which stands out. He explains: “I don’t think it’s going to happen, as we can’t seem to win handicap chases in England and we don’t set our horses out to win them. It’s not a worry though,
“People expect us to have winners, but we never go there expecting. We go there hoping and it’s a relief if we can get a winner or two. It’s always a case of relief. “You forget until you get back to Cheltenham that every inch of ground is fought for from the start to the finish. Throughout the year you might get a normal race where three of four would have a serious chance of winning, whereas in a race at Cheltenham you can have many times that lining up thinking they have a chance. “The competition is immense and there’s no given when you’re over there. That’s what makes it special and what makes it so hard to win there.”
we’ve won the Graded races and if the handicap races arrive that’s great, but it’s not something that I’ve set out to achieve. “I’d like to win the Kim Muir though. It’s Patrick’s goal to win the three amateur races at the Cheltenham Festival. He’s won the Bumper and hunter chase, so now he has to go for the Kim Muir. It may be harder to do at his weight, but I’m sure he’s going to have a good go and I’d hope that if he can win it that it would be on one of mine. We have one or two qualified this year, so we’ll see!” Looking ahead, you’d certainly be forgiven for sensing the serendipity around the fact that Mullins has a
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