Willie Mullins goes into Saturday’s finale to the cross-channel jumps season virtually assured of retaining the British trainers’ title at Sandown.
Having bridged a 70-year gap back to Vincent O’Brien by becoming British champion trainer from Ireland in 2024, Mullins once again looks like depriving his rival Dan Skelton on the last day.
General bookmaker odds of 1-7 about the outcome reflect how Saturday’s action involves variations on a theme of as-good-as and more-or-less: no one wants to be too definitive just in case but it’s just about a done deal.
Even Skelton thinks so, telling Ladbrokes: “Willie is just going to come over on the last day with wagons full of horses and blow us clean out of the water, I’d have thought.”
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It’s a galling scenario for the English trainer who looked home and hosed for a first championship victory after Cheltenham, only for Mullins to upend expectations with a spectacular Grand National result.
Skelton’s lead prior to Friday’s action was £57,718 (just over €67,500) and it looked thin considering there is almost £700,000 in prize money for Sandown’s card. Mullins sends 20 runners divided among five races worth £545,000 in all.
Skelton has nine runners but the task he faces in hanging on is underlined by having a single starter in the big Bet365 Handicap Chase, while Mullins has half the 20-runner field.
Minella Cocooner’s victory in the same race a year ago sealed the deal for jump racing’s dominant figure and he’s back for another crack at it after finishing seventh in the Grand National.
Topweight Grangeclare West was an admirable third at Aintree, while at the other end of the weights is Klarc Kent, runner-up to his stable companion Captain Cody in the Scottish National.
That Paul Townend isn’t on any of them, instead opting for the lightly raced novice High Class Hero, reflects how Mullins is throwing plenty at the job of closing out the title.
Nevertheless, still being able to keep most of his A-Team in reserve for Punchestown next week underlines just how dominant the Irish trainer is.
Gaelic Warrior is probably the most high-profile of Mullins’s Sandown team in the Oaksey Chase and that enigmatic talent has thrown in too many sub-par efforts in his career to rank towards the absolute top of the Closutton team.
Former dual Champion Chase winner Energumene takes on Jonbon in the Celebration, but his best days look to be in the past. Kitzbuhel blotted his copybook at Aintree with a rank display but could still be the one to beat in the Select Hurdle.
A trio of Mullins horses topped by Bunting line up in the concluding handicap hurdle, although the odds are any whistle will have been blown on the title race by then.
Mullins has long since been assured of a 19th Irish trainers’ title when the domestic jumps campaign winds up at Punchestown next week. A haul of almost €4.5 million is clear of Gordon Elliott.
Star chaser Galopin Des Champs is on course to bounce back from defeat in his Cheltenham Gold Cup hat-trick attempt when he lines up in Wednesday’s feature.
Galopin has had to settle for the runner-up spot in the last two renewals of the €300,000 Punchestown Gold Cup behind Fastorslow, although that rival is missing this time.
Mullins admitted Punchestown isn’t Galopin Des Champs’ favourite track, but added: “I always believe in bringing your Gold Cup horse back to Punchestown. Why should you just keep them in England. There is good prize money, and good racing deserves good horses. I think it’s incumbent on people to bring their horses there.”
Grand National hero Nick Rockett features among eight entries left in the big race, which will be an all-Irish contest.
Not so it seems next Friday’s Boodles Champion Hurdle, which is set to host the English superstar Constitution Hill.
Having lost his unbeaten record with a spectacular spill at Cheltenham, Nicky Henderson’s charge also fell at Aintree. With regular rider Nico de Boinville sidelined through injury, James Bowen will take over in the saddle.
Bowen, whose brother Sean landed Easter Monday’s Irish Grand National on Haiti Couleurs, rode Constitution Hill in a gallop on Friday and pending a weekend schooling session the horse will travel to Co Kildare next week.
“He will school either tomorrow or Sunday and barring any hiccups he’ll be heading off to the Emerald Isle,” Henderson reported.
It promises to echo the memorable 2013 Punchestown festival when Henderson brought Sprinter Sacre to complete a major festival hat-trick.
Henderson won Punchestown’s version of the Champion Hurdle with Buveur D’air in 2019 and 11 years before that through Punjabi.
Constitution Hill’s opposition is likely to be topped by State Man who will bid for a hat-trick of wins in the race. He fell at the last in Cheltenham last month when looking to have hurdling’s championship in the bag.
