A TREBLE on Tuesday and another hat-trick on Wednesday this week, saw Willie Mullins reach the milestone of having trained 100 winners at the Cheltenham Festival.

In the 120 years of the Cheltenham Festival, no other trainer has come close to that number. To put the achievement in context, Nicky Henderson is second on the all-time list with 73 winners, and he had his first Festival winner in 1985, 10 years before Mullins had his first success at the meeting.

Speaking moments after Jasmin De Vaux won the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper and brought up his century of Festival winners, Mullins said: “I can’t put into words what it feels like to train 100 winners here, because nobody ever thought that anybody would train 100 winners. As I’ve often said, when I started out and had my first win here with Tourist Attraction I thought that was a lifetime achievement, so I’m absolutely stunned that we’ve come this far.

“We have such a wonderful team at home, with my wife, Jackie, Patrick, David Casey, Ruby, Dick (Dowling) and all of my head people. It’s such a team effort, and they had all of those horses to saddle there. I didn’t go near one saddle!

“Having that team behind me is incredible, and for Patrick to ride it [the 100th winner] as well, and for one of our biggest owners.

“The team of owners we have too. They all praise each other when they have a winner and console one another when there’s disappointment. They are the mainstay of the whole thing. Without owners none of us would be here. It’s their sport.”

Patrick Mullins added: “It is. It’s something you don’t even dream of. It’s something that wasn’t possible before, the enlarged programme has made it possible. I’m very privileged to get the 100 for my father, it’s a special moment.”

On what makes his father so special, he said: “I always bring it back to when the Gigginstown split happened and we lost the biggest owner in racing and a third to a quarter of our horses. Dad was in his early 60s and instead of him consolidating and maybe finishing second or third, he went out and he got more owners, more horses, more staff, more problems, and got bigger because of it. I think if that hadn’t happened we mightn’t be where we are now either.

“The calibre of staff … and the owners he has built. Starting with Rich [Ricci], that was our kick-start, now for many years the Donnellys, Cheveley Park and others. He has made the very most of everything he has been able to.

“Harold [Kirk] has been amazing, Pierre Boulard as well, they work as a fantastic team. Everything counts.”

Asked what a typical day is like working with his dad, Patrick said: “Several headaches. He could say something one day and when you do that the next, he will give out to you for doing it – he will forget that he told you to do that the day before. He is always chopping and changing things, he is never standing still. He can’t be told ‘no’.”

On what he has learnt from watching his father, he said: “Never be afraid to try things, don’t be afraid of messing up. Never fall out with anyone, like Gigginstown – they are back now, when things happen, they happen. And have belief in yourself.

“He’s a funny man in that the more you try to tell him to do something, the more inclined he is to do the opposite, so you have to work around that, reverse psychology sometimes.”