CONSIDERING the team of A-listers that he turned up with to Punchestown this week, it speaks volumes about the stunning depth of Willie Mullins’ squad that he could secure a second consecutive British National Hunt Trainers’ Championship without taking away severely from his top Grade 1 performers.
After the ridiculously impressive achievement of saddling the five of the first seven home in the Randox Grand National, a total of nine post-Aintree winners in Britain helped seal the title for Closutton: Captain Cody, Dysart Dolomite, Absurde, Emerald Poet, Kiss Will, Fun Fun Fun, Gaelic Warrior, Il Etait Temps and Jump Allen.
While any yard would love to have horses of that level on their roster, it’s hard to envisage that any of the nine would have been odds-on contenders for Grade 1 races at Punchestown this week. That’s a scary type of depth.
Once Mullins declared 21 runners for the final day of the British season at Sandown, the writing was on the wall. As Dan Skelton summed up a day before the close of the campaign: “Willie is just going to come over on the last day of the season with wagons full of horses and blow us clean out of the water.” And so proved to be the case in a tremendous final flurry at Sandown.
These are rare times indeed in terms of what Mullins is managing to do. We might never see the likes of it again, though that is scant consolation to a team Skelton continuously improving.
While it might be hard to fully appreciate it now, these tussles with Mullins are surely only going to help bring Britain’s leading domestic handler to new levels in the years to come.
On the rise
There has been great support behind him in the run-in to the 2024/’25 season and surely owners in Britain will help to turn that into greater financial backing for him to launch future title challenges. It’s not to suggest there is bitterness from British racing people towards Mullins’ success, but you could easily see more owners want to get behind Skelton strongly as he attempts to win back the championship for the home contingent.
What’s more, the Warwickshire trainer is continuing to prove that he is amongst the very best around on either side of the Irish Sea when getting ample ammunition.
There has been a lot of class in how team Skelton have conducted themselves in the title run-in period.
As Harry Skelton said after being beaten in the third of four successive Grade 1s by a Mullins runner on day one of this year’s Aintree Festival: “It’s the Mullins team again but I’ve got nothing but admiration for what they’re doing. They get us out of bed in the morning and make us strive to be better. It’s absolutely remarkable what they’re doing.
“What those guys are doing and the team that they’ve built up, we want to take them on - we’re trying.”
A first title mightn’t have materialised for the Skeltons this time, but this is hardly the last time we’ll see these yards do battle for a championship. It’s a healthy rivalry that may only be getting started if both parties put their minds to it again next spring.
IN fairness, Dan Skelton had a valid reason for not targeting the Punchestown Festival given how many bullets he had to fire on home soil in recent weeks.
Still, his British counterparts haven’t always been quick to come to Ireland’s seasonal finale meeting, and those who have travelled often come away with rewards.
There has been evidence of the visiting yards finally catching on to the positives of having a crack at the Co Kildare track’s attractive pots this week, however. The opening results on day one suggested plenty more should be having a crack.
We had already seen Harry Derham come to Ireland and scoop a €100,000 pot at the Fairyhouse Winter Festival earlier in the season with Washington, and he returned to take out another valuable prize in Tuesday’s €50,000 Killashee Hotel Handicap Hurdle with Ascending Lark.
From just four British runners in that line-up, they managed to supply the one-two, as Jonjo and A.J. O’Neill’s Wilful was just touched off late on.
Likewise, on the same card, there was a British one-two in the €100,000 Albert Bartlett Triple Crown Series Final Handicap Hurdle when 50/1 outsider Buy Some Time provided Ayrshire trainer Mike Smith with his biggest career success. Also picking up prize money in defeat were Almuhit (Faye Bromley) and Rocheval (sixth, trained by Lucinda Russell).
There has been a nice splattering of visiting winners through the week, but that 35-minute spell sums up the opportunities that are here for overseas challengers to pick up decent pay cheques at the end of the season - especially at a time of year when top horses can be over the top.
David Pipe pulled off a similar touch with Thanksforthehelp in Wednesday’s Adare Manor Opportunity Series Final Handicap Hurdle and there was a British one-two-three-five in the €50,000 Conway Piling Handicap Hurdle on Thursday - the same afternoon as Petit Tonnerre and Baron Noir struck for British yards.
Rebecca Curtis showed it can be done with Haiti Couleurs in the €500,000 BoyleSports Irish Grand National a week earlier, and almost snared another €50,000 Fairyhouse pot when her Andy Amo came up just half a length short a day later.
Overseas runners add something to the make-up of our big-festival races. Greenshoots this week should only encourage more to return.