FEATURE WILLIE MULLINS
Willie Mullins and jockey Ruby Walsh after Hurricane Fly wins the Champion Hurdle Challenge Trophy at Cheltenham
Ruby Walsh and Willie Mullins with Quevega, after she won for the fifth time at the Cheltenham Festival
legacy of Mullins, who is just six winners away from hitting a century of winners at Jump racing’s most prestigious meeting. It’s a tally he has achieved in each of the last four years and we’re at this point thanks to another vintage year for the master of Closutton, who matched quantity with quality – in abundance. Five of Mullins’ six winners in 2023 came at Grade One level, with two of those coming in the biggest contest of them all, with Energumene and Galopin Des Champs in the ‘Championship’ races. It’s about as far away from the Cheltenham Festival as you can get when Mullins is asked to reflect on his latest achievements – on a particularly wet Friday when the July Festival is taking centre stage at Newmarket – but as he begins to reflect, the memories quickly begin to come back. He says: “I think we were delighted with the quality of winners – to win the type of races that we did was fantastic. To get just one winner is tough enough so to win races of that quality in one season is great. “You’re never guaranteed winners. You’ve got to go there and fight, as every inch of ground is fought for – you forget how difficult it is to win at the Cheltenham Festival until you see them lining up for the Supreme
Novices’ Hurdle and they’re coming past the stands. The pace, the speed and the aggression of the riders on the horses is such that when you do win one, it makes you appreciate just how hard it is to win.” It quickly becomes apparent that every victory at Cheltenham means a great deal to Mullins, and while it isn’t really in his nature to indulge in his achievements, he makes an exception when it comes to Galopin Des Champs. A final fence faller when having the race at his mercy in the previous year’s Turners Novices’ Chase, it certainly felt as though the seven-year-old had something to prove on his step up into racing’s Blue Riband – and Mullins admits that he was feeling the pressure heading into the big day. He says: “It was a special moment and the way the horse did it and how Paul [Townend] rode him, I thought it was a great performance from both of them. The horse had been so unlucky the year before and he came back and proved what he had shown then. “A lot of people probably doubted his stamina, but with the way the race was set up, there was no hiding place for him. It was run at a serious pace and
“Five of Mullins’ six winners in 2023 came at Grade One level, with two coming in the biggest contest of all”
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