Okay, try to keep up.
In the past few weeks Willie Mullins won nine races at Cheltenham, the Aintree Grand National and the Scottish Grand National.
He’s going to be champion jumps trainer in Ireland for the 18th time on 4 May but before that he will be crowned champion jumps trainer in Britain this Saturday (27 April), a feat last achieved by an Irish-based trainer in the 1950s by Vincent O’Brien.
Does anyone know if Willie Mullins could be given a late entry for the Eurovision?
If you haven’t been following the career of Ireland’s top National Hunt trainer, you may be wondering how Willie Mullins became such a dominant force.
The short answer is that, over more than 30 years with a licence, he has steadily improved the quality of his staff and his facilities, while his success in sourcing good racehorses – and getting the best from them – led to more and more wealthy individuals either sending him their best horses or asking him to buy some for them.
Fast forward to next week’s five-day Punchestown Festival where Mullins has the favourite for 10 of the 12 Grade 1 races and six of them are odds-on.
Feature race
The festival starts on Tuesday, 30 April when the feature race is the two-mile William Hill Champion Chase. Mullins should be winning this with El Fabiolo but – in an unusual move – the trainer plans to divert that horse to Sandown on Saturday (27 April) where he is likely to win the Grade 1 Celebration Chase and therefore, put the seal on the British trainers’ championship.
However, Mullins could still win the Punchestown race with Dinoblue.
Mullins saddled nine Grade 1 winners at the Punchestown Festival in each of the past three years and this year his ‘bankers’ appear to be Ballyburn, Galopin Des Champs, Gaelic Warrior, State Man and Lossiemouth – all of which won at the Cheltenham Festival.
Galopin Des Champs is expected to be taken on by last year’s winner Fastorslow in the Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup on the Wednesday of the meeting, while Shishkin and Corach Rambler are likely British challengers.
State Man looks to have Cheltenham runner-up Irish Point to beat in Friday’s Boodles Champion Hurdle. Ballyburn also looks unbeatable in that day’s Alanna Homes Champion Novice Hurdle.
Lossiemouth should stroll to success in Saturday’s EBF Mares’ Champion Hurdle and that mare’s owners Rich and Susannah Ricci can also expect to collect a trophy after Gaelic Warrior runs in Thursday’s Barberstown Castle Novice Chase.
As RTÉ Radio’s Brendan McArdle remarked during the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown, “It’s wall-to-wall Willie this weekend.”
Now if only someone could write a song about him.
You can almost hear the results of the Luxembourg jury ... ”Irlanda, DOUZE points!”
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