PAUL Mullins runs a fruit and vegetable business in his native Galway but about 10 years ago, he decided to take a chance on buying a few fillies, and “live the dream”.

Fast forward to today, and it’s fair to say he’s making a good fist of it. He bought three filly yearlings at that initial stage - Is She Diesel, Supreme Vic and Blackandambervic - with none of them costing above €2,500, before going on to record 10 wins between them.

Now Mullins has his own broodmare band and the next generation are already doing their bit.

Shotgun Jack, out of Supreme Vic, recently won a handicap hurdle by 13 lengths and Switch From Diesel, out of Is She Diesel, followed up two opening runner-up finishes by winning a mares’ bumper at Tipperary, securing her owner-breeder with a first Weatherbys ITBA National Hunt Fillies’ bonus of €5,000 in the process.

The Seamus Fahey-trained filly now has her owner well and truly dreaming with some big targets in mind.

“She was a bit flighty at the beginning but she’s improving all the time because she is getting stronger,” Mullins says. “The mother was very good, but she got injured early in her career, when she was only a three-year-old. She came back and did very well. She did great times in two handicap hurdles at Ballinrobe. I was mad to breed her to Yeats and it worked out that this was her first foal.

“We gave her a little break since and I only brought her back there on Wednesday morning. The plan is that she could run in December but we’re looking at the Grade 2 mares’ bumper at the Dublin Racing Festival.”

There is no doubt Mullins, from just outside Tuam, has been lucky but he is fine advertisement for the improvements made to the mares’ programme and extra incentives there for buying mares to race, with a view to breeding afterwards.

“I bought the three fillies thinking if they failed at the racing game, we could go breeding. It’s living the dream and I was very lucky. I know people that might have bought six or seven horses and hadn’t one winner out of them. Everything just fell into place.

“The fillies’ bonus is great and I’d say it was definitely another little incentive to run. Mares weren’t recognised for a long time but this is a great scheme now, it’s given it a great boost. I’d say a lot more people are keeping mares and you can see it at the sales as well, they’re paying well for fillies and mares at the moment.

“The mares I raced four or five years ago, their first foals are running now and they’re doing well. They’ve a lot of potential so it’s exciting.

“I’ve nearly 17 horses here and it’s nearly getting too big at the moment. We have 20 stables and there’s three mares in foal this year so we’ll be looking at either expanding or cutting back after that one way or the other.”

The key

More recently Mullins bought Ballyglass Beauty for just €1,500 before selling him on to a syndicate for Liam Cusack. The seven-year-old recorded his third career win with a smart performance at the Listowel Festival. So what is the key to finding such success with cheaply bought stock?

“My motto is to go with all the old fashioned sires, the proven ones, they are small money to go to and the old reliables,” Mullins says. “They all want to go to the fashionable sires but I stick with the old ones. Ballyglass Beauty is by Westerner, who I love. Supreme Vic and Blackandamber Vic are by Old Vic and Is She Diesel is by Schiaparelli.

“Before I bought those fillies, I had a Rosalier filly and she bred Bashful Beauty (High-Rise) who went on to win three times.”

With their proven ability on the track, in particular Is She Diesel who was a real consistent mare hitting the frame eight times in 10 starts over hurdles, Mullins can afford to dream that he might be able to stumble upon breeding a very nice horse and the fillies’ bonus provides that incentive for him to keep it himself and go to the races.

“I would love to win the Galway Hurdle actually,” he asserts. “We’ll be targeting that in the future, we’ll see how it goes. We did expect to win it with Is She Diesel. We were a reserve and just didn’t get in on the day but she was in great form.

“Swamp Fox had beaten her by two lengths in Listowel and she was 7lb better off in the Galway Hurdle and he was beaten a short-head by Tigris River so I reckon we’d have been there or thereabouts.

“The bonus scheme is a big advantage to the likes of me. When you come across a good filly, you’re hoping you might win the three of them, the hurdle and the chase then in time to come. It helps a lot.”