FOR the first time this winter, it feels as if the Willie Mullins yard is humming; in the racing week beginning Sunday, January 11th at Punchestown to the following Sunday at Thurles, the trainer had 14 winners across six Irish racing days.

Those numbers are one thing – and they are expected, as Brian Hayes said after winning on Joystick at Navan last Saturday - but more than that is the type of horse that was winning, and the style they won in, many of them what have become trademark Mullins.

Appreciate It won the Horse & Jockey Chase at Thurles on Sunday, becoming the sixth Mullins-trained graded winner aged 11 or older since 2020, no other trainer managing more than two, and he did it in good style too, quickly settling things on the run to the last.

Espresso Milan won earlier on the same card and again it was something we have seen before; well-backed, he stepped up markedly on his maiden hurdle win despite doing things wrong, racing keen and making mistakes, yet still having the ability to overcome those flaws and win easily.

But perhaps the biggest sign of normality being restored was young horses winning by margin, How’s Hannah and Bambino Fever in the early part of the week, before Mighty Park landed a Fairyhouse maiden hurdle by 38 lengths on Thursday.

Best on the day

Few of the runners took any meaningful part in the race and Mighty Park won unchallenged but his time was the best on the day and the inner track at Fairyhouse would hardly have suited a big horse like him.

The challenge with him will be getting another run into him before Cheltenham, which is presumably where he is headed. He was a non-runner at Christmas with colic which may have knocked his timetable back and has no Dublin Racing Festival entry, that meeting coming up too soon.

Perhaps the next suitable race is a listed novice hurdle over two miles at Punchestown on February 15th, though there are options over longer around the same time too.

Should the window for another run prove too tight, he could go straight to Cheltenham, though the record of horses going straight from a maiden hurdle to a Grade 1 novice hurdle at the meeting is understandably poor.

Including the Triumph, such horses are 3/101 with nine places since 2008, though Mullins did train two of those winners, Fiveforthree and The Nice Guy, and all the placed horses. Those figures don’t include Poniros in the Triumph last year, either, who was having his first hurdles start.

Disappointment

The one Mullins disappointment in the past week was Il Etait Temps, all the more surprising given his consistency since going chasing and even while missing time.

He jumped with little fluency from the early stages of the Clarence House Chase, something that may not have been obvious as the eye was drawn to Gidleigh Park who was jumping worse, though the track or the fences are unlikely excuses.

He has run to his best at a variety of tracks from Leopardstown to Aintree to Sandown, none of which have easy fences, and it may just have been that he wasn’t on a going day, Paul Townend switching wide early in the race in a bid to get him travelling.

It looks a case of horses being horses, though the challenge now is that his recovery mission will likely come at Cheltenham, a track he has not taken to in three runs, often looking ill-at-ease on the undulations there.

He is a better horse now but will need to be to mix it with the likes of Marine Nationale who is very well-suited to Prestbury Park, and a possible bounce back effort adds another layer to an interesting Champion Chase.

THE most valuable race in Ireland in the last week was the rescheduled Dan Moore at Fairyhouse, and it was won by – guess who – Willie Mullins with Western Diego.

He beat a field of largely disappointing sorts - yes, I’m looking at you Blood Destiny, Inthepocket and Tullyhill - and had been in danger of joining that category before this season, building on a fine run here in November.

Perhaps coming near side in the straight was an advantage for Western Diego but regardless he is building a fine record at the track - form figures:1331 - and a race back here at Easter would make sense for him.

He came clear with an unexposed stablemate in More Coko, who ran his best race over fences on this decent ground, and may have paid for racing close to a strong gallop, the time for the race 13.3 seconds faster than the beginners chase over the same trip which was the next race on the card.

The front-running Touch Me Not was the same and might be worth marking up on his third-place finish. This was the second time in two runs where he has set a handicap chase up for a closer after going hard, and he might be better in a small field graded race.

Four-year-olds

Earlier on that Fairyhouse card, Proactif beat Macho Man in a four-year-old hurdle, the pair making their first starts for Mullins after a single win in France apiece.

The winner attracted late support and made the running, jumping better than the runner-up before winning with a bit in hand, and gives J.P. McManus another big player in the juvenile hurdle division.

AT Navan on Saturday, Zanoosh won the featured handicap hurdle, a good effort on handicap debut when making her challenge up the near side may have been an advantage, Patrick Mullins doing his best to get out on the chase track with The Irish Avatar in the closing bumper suggesting as much.

Son Of Anarchy finished well in third, but looked less than willing, flashing his tail repeatedly in the straight, and his Punchestown win in November may prove a mirage unless headgear can straighten him out.

Perhaps the most likely source of future good handicap hurdle winners will prove the opening rated novice hurdle. Zeus Power did well to win here having had a disadvantageous track position in rear, showing a good attitude to lead close home.

He is improving with racing and won under different tactics here having been on the pace last time, and there could be more to come as he steps up in trip while better ground might help too.

Lazare De Star had every chance while getting the run of the race, failing to win despite going best down the hill, and he may not be one to trust, hanging in the finish here as he had done behind Saint Baco in a maiden at the same track in November.

The third, Welonlyhavedone, was an eye-catcher, but with caveats. He travelled as well as any to the last and seemed to blow up on the run-in, this being his first run since mid-November.

He had been pulled up at Cheltenham then but before that looked set to beat I’ll Sort That at Galway, albeit in a strange race, but the Gavin Cromwell yard remain in a medium-term lull.

Since the start of November through Thurles last Sunday, Cromwell’s jumps runners in Ireland are 10/243, a strike-rate of 4.1%, a sizeable drop when compared with the 2023/24 and 2024/25 seasons when he had a strike-rate of around 12% in both campaigns.