WHEN I am checking the racing results, my first interest is naturally in the breeding of the winners. Who the successful riders would not really be high on my list of things to check, though exceptional feats in the saddle would never go unnoticed.
This week, something caught my eye though, and it was not some jockey riding a big winner, even if every winner is important to connections. Patrick (or Paddy to his friends) Mullins is one of the finest riders about, as good as most professionals, but he retains his amateur status. In years past he would have been written about as one of the great Corinthians!
Last Saturday, Mullins won the bumper at Navan – a normal affair for him. My interest was piqued as he was on a four-year-old gelding owned by my sister Michelle, and trained by my nephew, Charles Weld. Returned at 12/1, I didn’t have a penny on Double Helix (Rock Of Gibraltar), but will know better in future. He beat a smart field of runners from many of the leading yards, and was described as follows by Charles.
A real one
“He’s going to be a good horse; he is a big, leggy baby. Yesterday [at the races] was his first time on grass. He’ll be a real one next year”. In his younger days, Charles used to ride out for Dermot Weld, a relation, and one horse he remembers from those days was Waaheb (Elusive Quality). That gelding was unbeaten in his first three starts in bumpers, twice at Leopardstown and then a listed bumper at Limerick, and was beaten a short head by the ill-fated Lovethehigherlaw (trained by Willie Mullins and ridden by son Patrick) in the Grade 1 Champion Bumper at Punchestown 15 years ago.
Adding further pleasure to the win for Charles was the fact that he picked Double Helix out at the Goffs Autumn Yearling Sale and bought him for €13,000. He was bred and sold by White Star Bloodstock Ltd, Angelo Matta. Double Helix is the sixth foal, fourth runner and second winner out of the unraced Rosalind Franklin (Intikhab), The other winner was smart and sound.
Njord (Roderic O’Connor) was trained by two ladies, Sheila Lavery and Jessica Harrington, and won five times. Ironically, his best performance on the racecourse was to finish sixth, but as it was just five and a half lengths behind Baaeed in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, and ahead of Group 1 winners Master Of The Seas, Alcohol Free, Benbatl and Lord Glitters, you can understand why it was his highest-rated run.
Having not won a stakes race, why would Njord be running in a Group 1? Earlier that same season he was a smidgen over a length behind Order Of Australia (won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile) when second in the Group 2 Minstrel Stakes, the same distance and position behind Kinross (a dual Group 1 winner) in the Group 3 John of Gaunt Stakes, and third in the Group 2 Hungerford Stakes. If his half-brother has half that talent, Double Helix could well be a star National Hunt performer in the future.
HAVING just read about Double Helix, you might be wondering what the headline was about. One win is hardly a streak! Well, let me explain.
The following day Patrick Mullins headed to Listowel where he won the bumper by seven and a half lengths with the odds-on favourite, Green Hint (Crystal Ocean), for his father. The next bumper was on Wednesday, and would you believe it? Mullins won it again, also by seven and a half lengths, this time on the Tom Cooper-trained New Grange (Walk In The Park). Roll on Thursday and the bumper, and yes, you have it, Mullins was back in the winners’ enclosure on Berkstar (Berkshire). Four bumper rides in six days, and four wins – and that was not all.
For good measure, Patrick took another mount, also on Thursday, but this time in a maiden hurdle. This was on Al Arrivee (Tunis), trained by Willie, but to make it a complete family affair, this six-year-old mare is owned by Jackie Mullins. Of course they won, by nine lengths. So this is why the headline talks about a winning streak. By the time you read this, Patrick will have taken two more rides at Listowel. Check out the results.
The four winners mentioned here all have very different types of pedigrees. Jackie Mullins’ mares maiden hurdle winner Al Arrivee won two of her four bumpers, was twice second, and ran fourth at Punchestown in a Grade 3. Placed on her hurdling debut, she was winning at the second attempt. The key aim for Willie Mulins will be to get blacktype for Al Arrivee, as she will be a hugely valuable broodmare.
Bred by Emmanual Clayeux, Al Arrivee cost Harold Kirk €56,000 as a yearling at Arqana, by which time her half-brother Al Boum Photo (Buck’s Boum) had won two Cheltenham Gold Cups. Another half-sister, Al Fonce (Cokoriko), is a listed hurdle winner this year, while further back in the family are a host of smart performers. No pressure Willie!
Green Hint
The Closutton maestro took over the training of Simon Munir’s and Isaac Souede’s Green Hint from Stuart Crawford, a well-worn path for horses running in those owners’ colours. A €50,000 Highflyer purchase at the Goffs Arkle Sale from breeder Paul Reed, Green Hint won a point-to-point on debut, and weeks later Crawford ran him in the Goffs Defender bumper at the Punchestown Festival, where he was second – to a Mullins runner! Willie has now won with him at the second time of asking.
This is a family familiar to Mullins as one of the stars back in the fourth remove is none other than Annie Power (Shirocco), and she now dam of the Grade 1-winning hurdler Mystical Power (Galileo).
Green Hint’s dam, Hint Of Grey (Mastercraftsman), raced for Paul and Catherine Reed, and she was a tough cookie. She ran 21 times on the flat, winning three and placed a number of times. Three victories over hurdle were gained from 11 starts. She even went chasing, and the last two runs from three outings saw her finish second.
Berkstar
Placed on his only run in a point-to-point for Michael Murphy behind Lou Prince (who then sold for £240,000), Berkstar won on his debut for the Mullins father and son team at Listowel. Murphy gave €7,000 for him as a foal, sold by breeder Jim Smyth through Castledillon Stud. Berkstar is the fifth winner for his dam, and she is a half-sister to the Hong Kong Group 1 winner Dominant (Cacique), as well as a pair of Group 2 winners, Listen In (Sea The Stars) and Es Que Love (Clodovil).
Eoghan Loughlin bred New Grange out of a Presenting (Mtoto) daughter of Tweedledrum (Beat Hollow), a listed hurdle winner who placed in the Grade 1 Long Walk Hurdle at Ascot. Rob James gave €78,000 for him as a store at last year’s Goffs Arkle Sale, and won a point-to-point with him on his debut in February – by 24 lengths. James obviously always knew the horse had talent, and last November he bought New Grange’s half-sister, now a yearling, by Jigme (Motivator) for €19,000.