Family rivalry an extra ingredient in the Mullins machine

When it comes to assessing the jaw-dropping strength of Willie Mullins’ Cheltenham Festival squad, few are better placed than his son Patrick and nephew Danny.

Both men will have a role to play when the Closutton juggernaut roles into the Cotswolds. How much of a part remains to be seen, with the most successful trainer in Festival history not one for making a decision early if it can be made late.

Stable jockey Paul Townend will have the pick of the majority of the Mullins superstars he wants to ride and as there is no clear number two, with Patrick and Danny somewhere in a cloudy pecking order that keeps even family members guessing, both will have to wait until they called upon.

When asked if he knew of any confirmed rides for this year’s Festival, 16-time champion amateur Patrick Mullins said: “No, I don’t – I wish I did! I suppose in another year I’d be thinking maybe Dancing City in the National Hunt Chase, but that race has obviously changed, and I don’t know what I’m going to ride in the Champion Bumper yet because I can’t do the weight on Bambino Fever.

“After that you’re trying to pick up spares and it’s very much up in the air, but you’re looking at horses you might have won on before in bumpers or whatever.”

As part of the traditional pre-Festival Irish press trip, Patrick, 35, and Danny, 32, joined the assembled media at the Lord Bagenal, the scene of many a Mullins party over the years, to discuss their hopes and dreams for this year’s meeting.

Danny was in particularly good form, fresh from enjoying a Dublin Racing Festival double, but it is notable that neither were saddled by his famous uncle.

The rider could be forgiven for feeling frustrated by the lack of clarity heading into the biggest week of the year, but he is more than happy to grab whatever opportunities do arise with both hands.

“As per usual with me it’ll be late on,” he said.

“I had a great Dublin Festival, but looking at the entries in the weeks coming up to it I would have been thinking I was hopefully going to be on some of Willie’s and Emmet (Mullins) pops up with one in a handicap and I got on a Joseph O’Brien spare and had two winners.

“It’s great to be in a position where I’ve put myself there to be a go-to man on the big day. My Cheltenham horse was Flooring Porter (dual winner of the Stayers’ Hurdle) and I picked up that ride an hour before the race, so anything can happen.

“It’s probably unlikely that I’m going to have a confirmed ride where I can say I’m going to do this or that in a race. Paul can have plan A, B and C for the ones he knows he’s going to ride, I have to be ready with plan A, B and C for the 28 races and hope I get a ride in one of them.

“That’s just the way it is and it’s worked well for me in the past.”

There could be a major spare ride up for grabs on day one, with Lossiemouth looking set to renew rivalry with State Man in the Champion Hurdle, although she remains in the Mares’ Hurdle.

With Townend expected to keep the faith in reigning champion State Man, it appears almost certain one of the Mullins men will be aboard Lossiemouth, should she go for the Champion, having departed four flights from the finish when challenging State Man in the Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown.

Patrick Mullins was intriguingly jocked up to ride Lossiemouth that day initially, but a couple of hours later it was his cousin’s name who appeared on the racecard.

When asked whether he felt Lossiemouth could win the Champion Hurdle, Danny Mullins said: “I think she definitely can. Constitution Hill is still very good, but even though Lossiemouth fell in Leopardstown, she’d learned a good bit from Kempton the time before.

“In the Christmas Hurdle she jumped quite high, she learned to get lower and faster and eventually paid the price. It was an uncharacteristic mistake, it just came out of nowhere and the reports seem to be that she’s come out of it not too bad.

“The placement of the Dublin Racing Festival to Cheltenham is fantastic, with five weeks rather than two or three, so hopefully Lossiemouth can bounce back from that.”

Patrick Mullins takes a slightly different view, saying of her Leopardstown fall: “It’s a big concern and not an ideal preparation. It was a horrible fall and Ruby (Walsh) always says the good jumpers get the worst falls because they’re not expecting it.”

Even if Lossiemouth and State Man turn up at their best, Mullins believe both will have their work cut out to beat the horse that is looking to regain his crown.

“If Constitution Hill turns up I think we’re all running for place money. I rode in the Supreme when he won it and I always said this horse can’t be beat,” he added.

“I was on Kilcruit and was beside Mighty Potter and Jack Kennedy and even though we were 20 lengths down at halfway I said ‘we could still win this, these can’t keep going, they’ve lost their heads’.

“I knew Dysart Dynamo was a bit of a runaway, Jonbon had gone out to not give Dysart Dynamo anything and we couldn’t go with them. Then Dysart Dynamo falls, I nearly get Jonbon with Kilcruit and your man (Constitution Hill) just keeps going.

“That horse is unbeatable, but the horse I saw in Kempton and Cheltenham in January doesn’t look unbeatable. Maybe I’m conning myself, but there’s hope.”

The feature event on day two is, of course, the Queen Mother Champion Chase, in which Danny has high hopes for Solness.

The seven-year-old proved his surprise Christmas success was no fluke when dominating from the front in last month’s Dublin Chase and while it is uncertain whether Mullins will keep the ride or not at this stage, with J J Slevin potentially set to be recalled, he feels Solness should not underestimated.

“Solness was very good. There’s been plenty of chat about the race, but the speed he went, very few horses could keep up with that,” he said.

“Contrary to whatever everyone is saying, they tried to come with me in Leopardstown. I think I left the ground in third over the first fence and it wasn’t until you jumped the two downhill fences that he really poured it on.

“He impressed me so much. It’s easy to go out and do all the jumping down the back straight, but to go down and jump the last and race from there until the finish, that’s what pays.”

Whether on horseback or on the ground, as assistant to his father Patrick Mullins is relishing being part of what is perhaps the strongest team National Hunt racing has ever seen.

Manchester City’s unexpected demise in the last 12 months is proof that even the mighty can fall, but Patrick believes his father’s burning ambition will ensure the Mullins machine continues to dominate.

“Willie has always said to me, you need fresh blood. You look at what Sir Alex Ferguson did, you need to keep new people coming in.

“Willie is always thinking two years ahead, not even next year. You can’t rest on your laurels. It’s a cliched thing to say, but the hunger Willie has to go ‘again, again’ and ‘more, more’ is incredible.

“We have extra stables this year and he’s on about getting more stables again. We’re all trying to say ‘it’s full’, but at an age when most people are retiring, he’s only ramping up.”