Mullins set for another bumper campaign

By Alan Conway

The days have shortened and the cold weather has come a calling. In yards all across Ireland and England the wraps are beginning to come off the leading National Hunt horses and soon they will be warming our hearts and pockets.

The yard of Willie Mullins must be a great place this time of year. In each box at his Closutton yard there are any number of potential stars, a large chunk of highly talented horses and a few superstars thrown in for good measure. Rarely has one trainer had so much ammo to go to war with in a season.

Last year was a record breaking year for Willie Mullins. He eclipsed his 2008-2009 season both in the number of winners he sent out and the amount of prize money he won. This achievement is more impressive when you consider that his star hurdler Mikael D’Haguenet was sidelined for the whole term while other star hurdler Hurricane Fly and RSA chase winner Cooldine both had restrictive campaigns.

The Punchestown Festival was the undoubted highlight for team Mullins. He sent out an incredible 12 winners including five Grade 1 winners with Blackstairmountain, Golden Silver, Kempes, Quevega and Hurricane Fly all winning huge pots. It was some week.

Along with a host of talented novices, including Arvika Ligeonniere who Mullins rates highly, and goes novice chasing, it is the established stars that Mullins is most looking forward to seeing back on the racecourse.

Hurricane Fly is one that I am really looking forward to watching. The way he won at Punchestown and given the fact that he was off for so long marks him down as quite a talent. Mullins agrees “he is definitely one of our best. He will properly start back off in the Morgiana Hurdle next month and it is the Grade 1 route with him all the way.”

Mikael D’Haguenet is another that I cannot wait to see. A multiple Grade 1 winner over hurdles he had no luck at all last year and never made it to the track. He will go novice chasing and will surely take very high rank if transferring his hurdles form to fences.

Cooldine will again tackle all the big 3 mile plus races with the Gold Cup being his ultimate target. “The targets will be the same as last season. We are hoping to get more races into him than last year.” Like Hurricane Fly he had a troubled season and his huge run in the Irish Hennessy behind Joncol may have taken the edge off him when he ran in the Gold Cup.

One article is not big enough to go through all Willie’s horses in great detail but there is one horse that may be worth keeping onside this winter. Zaidpour is a half brother to Triumph Hurdle winner Zaynar. He was a winner on the flat for Alain de Royer-Dupre. He missed last season with a bad cut on his leg. The plan for him is to go novice hurdling and is one that could keep the wolf away from the door this winter.

By Alan Conway