Talk of Mullins decline is grossly premature

This week’s superb Dublin Racing Festival features the last major trials for the Cheltenham Festival that begins on March 10, a meeting dominated by Willie Mullins for the last decade. Those who suggest the Closutton-based trainer is on the wane this season might be in for a big shock when they sit down to view Saturday and Sunday’s action at Leopardstown, writes Paul Alster.

Press speculation that Mullins (pictured above with stable jockey Paul Townend) doesn’t have the firepower this term that has been his trademark for so long, is a way wide of the mark. A simple glance at the entries for the Dublin Racing Festival and its ante-post markets suggests very strongly that we could be in for the usual domination by the Mullins team of the eight Grade 1 races and the multiple major supporting contests. Even Gordon Elliott, currently leading Mullins in the Irish jumps trainers championship by more than 600,000 euros, has no illusions about deposing the multiple champion trainer, much of whose string has been pretty much under wraps this mid-winter, with the exception of the big Christmas meetings. The big guns are now being primed to fire again.

Those in the media suggesting that the end of the stunning Mullins era may be on the horizon, have failed to note that the champion has had more than 300 fewer runners so far this campaign than Elliott, his main rival, but is still operating at a 25% winning strike-rate, as opposed to Elliott’s 16%. The high profile defeat of Il Etait Temps at Ascot last week prompted more mutterings about the yard, but the star two-miler was clearly ill-at-ease on the very testing ground in the Grade 1 Clarence House Chase and will be a different proposition when he encounters a better surface.

Prior to final declarations for the eight Grade 1 contests at this weekend’s DRF, Mullins’ main contenders – he will likely have multiple runners in many of these races – are currently priced up at Evens (Doctor Steinberg), 8/11 (Narciso Has), 7/4 (Kopek Des Bordes), 5/4 (Galopin Des Champs), 4/9 (Final Demand), 11/4 (King Rasko Grey), 6/4 (Majborough) & 5/4 (Lossiemouth). Hardly a lack of strength in depth – and that’s without counting those potentially very strong second, third and even fourth strings in some of the contests.

If Mullins were to walk away from this weekend’s festivities with just a couple of winners there might be grounds for some concern, but that seems highly unlikely. While this season he does not seem to be pursuing the British trainers title that he wrestled from grasp of poor old Dan Skelton twice in as many recent seasons, Willie Mullins will surely be crowned Irish champion yet again, and with more than a century of winners already on the board at the Cheltenham Festival, this remarkable racing legend is surely going to take plenty of stopping once again and be the man to follow at Prestbury Park from March 10-13.

Paul Alster has broadcast and reported on the British racing industry for four decades as a commentator, journalist, TV and radio presenter, betting correspondent, SP Returner, tipster and form analyst, among other things.