EMMET Mullins says he has already had offers of support from new and existing clients wishing to support him in his move to Glebe House Stables in Co Carlow in the coming months.

News broke last weekend that Jim Bolger had gone ‘sale agreed’ on his famous Coolcullen yard, house and gallops, which stretches to 150 acres. On Tuesday it was confirmed that Mullins was the buyer and that he intends to focus more on flat racing in the future.

Speaking to The Irish Field, Mullins said he had received plenty of positive messages about his plans this week. “There’s been loads of well-wishers. Some existing and new clients say they’re willing to support me, so that’s a great comfort. I’ll be at all the major yearling sales, trying to drum up some business as well.”

Bolger, who bought the property in 1982 and has trained approximately 2,900 winners from there, put the yard on the market last May.

Mullins (36), who married Maxine O’Sullivan recently, said: “It was on my radar as soon as it went up for sale but it was only a dream. We did go to have a look at it with Jim earlier in the summer. It was amazing just to see the scale of it and how well it was put together. But that was all still a bit foggy dreamland at the time. Then, in the last few weeks, we managed to sort out an agreement.”

The opportunity to acquire such a unique facility is rare, he said. “There’s not too many private gallops around with a record like the gallop that Jim has built. To even get access to it is something that doesn’t come around often.”

Mullins currently trains around 45 horses at Closutton, adjacent to his uncle Willie Mullins’ yard. Coolcullen has capacity for over 150 horses but there are no plans for an immediate move.

“It’ll be months rather than weeks, I’d imagine,” he said. “We’ll concentrate on the day job here for the time being. I’d like to have all our horses in the one place but let’s get this National Hunt season out of the way. It’s great to see good winners being trained in Coolcullen this year and we’ll just need to get to grips with the gallops when we do move in. It shouldn’t take too long to figure out or even to just replicate the good system that’s there already.”

While Mullins has trained the winners of some valuable flat races, he is more known for his achievements at Cheltenham and for saddling the winners of the Aintree and Irish Grand Nationals.

On the decision to focus more on flat racing in future, he said: “We’ll still have jumpers – Jim trained two Irish Champion Hurdle winners from his place – but this is a major financial undertaking. I find it very hard to sell bumper horses – it’s a small market – but I’ve sold two-year-old winners to Hong Kong, America, Dubai and Singapore. And that’s from a small number of runners.

“So I think, to utilise what we’ve got up there, it has to be more orientated on trading flat horses.”

One of Mullins’ closest friends and best clients is Paul Byrne, owner of Irish Grand National winner Soldier In Milan. Earlier this year the pair acquired the high-class three-year-old colt Zia Zabel from trainer Natalia Lupini. Mullins gave the horse an entry in the Cox Plate but told The Irish Field this week that the Australia plan had been shelved and Zia Zabel remains in his care.

Asked if he was worried about taking on the top flat trainers on a regular basis next year, Mullins said: “It’s in no way me versus them, or taking them on. I won’t be worried about anyone else and they won’t be too worried about me.

“I have to get to grips with our own operation and get that going as well as possible. You do your own job right, and hopefully the results will follow.”