JASMIN De Vaux marks 100 Festival winners for Willie Mullins in great style under Patrick Mullins to win the Wetherbys Champion Bumper.

The French-bred five-year-old recieved his education in the capable hands of Stuart Crawford and won a four-year-old geldings maiden point-to-point for the handler in April last year.

Patrick Mullins settled the gelding widest of all and and gradually picked off his rivals as the race went on before storming home in the final furlong to win by a-lenth-and-three-quarters

Another notable point-to-point winner was the runner-up, Romeo Coolio, who battled hard under Keith Donoghue for trainer Gordon Elliott but was unable to match the turn of foot of the winner in the final stages of the two-mile contest.

Willie Mullins said: “I can’t put into words what it feels like to train 100 winners here, because nobody ever thought that anybody would train 100 winners. As I’ve often said, when I started out and had my first win here with Tourist Attraction I thought that was a lifetime achievement, so I’m absolutely stunned that we’ve come this far.

“We have such a wonderful team at home, with my wife Jackie, Patrick, David Casey, Ruby, Dick (Dowling) and all of my head people. It’s such a team effort, and they had all of those horses to saddle there. I didn’t go near one saddle!

Having that team behind me is incredible, and for Patrick to ride it as well, and for one of our biggest owners.

“The team of owners we have too. They all praise each other when they have a winner and console one another when there’s disappointment. They are the mainstay of the whole thing. Without owners none of us would be here. It’s their sport.

“We are just stunned that we have come this far, but we’ve had tremendous people behind us, backing us, the whole time.

“I was really pleased Patrick got the ride. I wasn’t sure he was on the right one, but he picked it and he was spot on.

“Simon and Isaac had the disappointment with El Fabiolo so for them to own this horse was a little bit of justice.

“I’m just delighted.”

The winning jockey, Mullins’ son Patrick Mullins, said: “It is. It’s something you don’t even dream of. It’s something that wasn’t possible before, the enlarged programme has made it possible. I’m very privileged to get the 100 for my father, it’s a special moment.”

On what makes his dad so special, he said: “I always bring it back to when the Gigginstown split happened and we lost the biggest owner in racing and a third to a quarter of our horses [when Dad was in] his early 60s, and instead of him consolidating and maybe finishing second or third, he went out and he got more owners, more horses, more staff, more problems, and got bigger because of it. I think if that hadn’t happened we mightn’t be where we are now either.

“The calibre of staff…and the owners he has built. Starting with Rich, that was our kick-start, now for many years the Donnellys, Cheveley Park and others. He has made the very most of everything he has been able to.

“Harold [Kirk] has been amazing, Pierre Boulard as well, they work as a fantastic team. Everything counts.”

Asked what a typical day is like working with his dad, he said: “Several headaches! He could say something one day and when you do that the next, he will give out to you for doing it – he will forget that he told you to do that the day before! He is always chopping and changing things, he is never standing still. He can’t be told no. When David Casey had his appendix out he couldn’t fly down to Melbourne, so Willie said, ‘well can we get him there by land?’ To Melbourne! Who else would have even…! It’s that kind of thinking. It’s outside the box, at times it can be like the man from the moon, but enough of it works.”

On what he has learnt from watching his father, he said: “Never be afraid to try things, don’t be afraid of messing up. Never fall out with anyone, like Gigginstown – they are back now, when things happen, they happen. And have belief in yourself. He’s a funny man in that the more you try to tell him to do something, the more inclined he is to do the opposite, so you have to work around that, reverse psychology sometimes.”

On choosing to ride the Champion Bumper winner, he said: “I couldn’t ride the fillies at the weight. He was a horse who had nothing going against them, everything else had a minor mark against them. The only thing you could hold against him is how he looks, he’s very small, very narrow, very short, he doesn’t do anything flashy. But when I had a look under the bonnet in Naas, there was plenty there. I wanted to be wide and out of the ruck as he’s not a big horse, so I didn’t want to be bashed around. He was probably further back than I wanted, but we went a real good gallop for the first six furlongs. Everytime I needed to make ground, he was able to do it. Even though we were wide, I was able to go where I wanted – I wasn’t at the mercy of anyone else. They are called bumpers for a reason!”

Gordon Elliott, trainer of both the runner-up Romeo Coolio and third Jalon D'oudairies, said: "They are two very nice horses. It would have been lovely to have won today but it's all in the future.

“I'm just lucky to have been born in the same era as Willie Mullins. Listen, he's a great man and I'm delighted for him to get his hundred winners at Cheltenham.”

5.30pm Weatherbys Champion Bumper (Grade 1) 2m

1 Jasmin De Vaux 9/2

2 Romeo Coolio 18/1

3 Jalon D'oudairies 3/1 Fav

19 ran

Distances: 1¾, 2½

Time: 4m 7.39s (slow by 23.39s)