Patrick Mullins, champion amateur jockey and assistant to trainer Willie Mullins, reacts to the yard's success at the Timeform awards for the 2023/24 season.
Galopin des Champs was voted Horse of the Season over State Man. Would you agree with that one-two?
Patrick Mullins: "I think it’s very hard not go agree with it. State Man is an incredible racehorse who is probably even better than the credit he does get – but he’s Roy Keane’s postman, he turns up, goes home, no fuss.
But Galopin Des Champs was the horse to put in the extraordinary performances. His Savills Chase win, his Gold Cup win, I think he deserves to be horse of the year. He’s turned up at every dog fight, he hasn’t won all of them, but he’s turned up, run well and put in some huge performances. It’s a great honour for him to win this award.
"I always look back at Kauto Star, he didn’t win every time, Hurricane Fly, even Faugheen, when they get beat but come back to win, it’s special. No one really wants a flawless champion; you want a champion who falls and gets back up off the canvas and that’s what Galopin Des Champs has done.
"I think you have to rate the Savills as his best performance of the season. He beat the same horse by three times the distance he did at Cheltenham. Was there an advantage in racing wide on the chase track that day? Possibly, but not definitely, but I know watching the racing it was properly awe-inspiring and jaw-dropping, like Kauto Star’s King George when he won by half the track. I think that will be Galopin Des Champs’ signature performance of his career, it will be very hard to top it. That race on the day had a big field, a lot of depth and he just blew it apart."
Who would Ballyburn compare to your past winners of the Gallagher Novices' Hurdle?
"For me he has the potential to be as good as any of our previous Cheltenham Festival novice hurdle winners but it’s never easy to transfer from being a top novice to a top open horse. Sir Gerhard didn’t quite make the jump, Impaire Et Passe did in the Aintree Hurdle but maybe hasn’t been as impressive as he was in his novice year while Faugheen did make the leap.
"I think Ballyburn has the potential to do so too and be hugely competitive wherever he goes. I don’t think the Gallagher turned out this year to be overly strong, I don’t think Predators Gold or Ile Atlantique ran their race but Ballyburn’s form with Slade Steel, Dancing City et al, it really stands up.
"As I said when I got off him in his bumper, he has that sixth gear, that bit of wow factor.
Is Gaelic Warrior a potentially top-class two-miler in open company?
"He just has an enormous engine. He’s a bit of a flawed genius, he has his quirks, he’s won the Arkle impressively this season but he also won a three-mile Grade One novice hurdle at Punchestown in the past.
"Gaelic Warrior needs a strong gallop and maybe soft ground to be at his best over two miles. Is he going to be a Tingle Creek horse? Is he a King George horse? All those options are open. Nowadays the Savills and John Durkan are probably more competitive races but might not have quite the same prestige. He’s got the potential to go anywhere from two to three miles and might just be the most exciting horse in training.
Is Fact To File a potential Gold Cup horse?
"I think its worth coming back to the match race at the DRF between Fact To File and Gaelic Warrior. At the time there was a bit of moaning about it but for me it a top-quality match is so rare, in Ireland we had Buck House v Dawn Run, the Champion Chase winner and Gold Cup winner taking each other on.
"While the race evaporated on the day how much would people pay to see the Leopardstown race again now? Fact To File isn’t slow, they went a ferocious gallop that day and he was well within himself, but what he did as a bumper horse blew me away.
"He’s not a sharp, small, quick type. If you looked to paint a Gold Cup horse that’s what he is. He doesn’t have a pile of experience jumping but we think the Gold Cup is where he can end up and, to me, he looks the biggest pretender to Galopin Des Champs’ crown.
Who didn't live up to expectations and can make up for lost time?
"Facile Vega was the biggest disappointment of the season. I rode him work a few times and he blew me away - he just gives you such a feel. But he never reproduced it on the track.
"I think he didn't love fences and the more he went jumping them the less he loved them. I wonder could he be a Big Buck's type and could he go back to the Stayers' Hurdle? But Willie being Willie he'll probably win a Gold Cup with him! I still haven't given up on him.
Which Grade 1 winner surprised you the most?
"Il Etait Temps surprised us the most. He won a Grade 1 as a novice hurdler, but that was the day Facile Vega blew out, and he didn't look like a chaser - he's short, he's not big, very narrow. But it has, without doubt, improved him. He's settled better, he enjoys it, he's tough. He danced every dance and seemed to improve through the season. He's a real fan favourite, an underdog, and who knows where he can end up?
What was your most special moment of the season?
"The moment that stands out to me, and it’s a bit random, is Baby Kate winning at Cheltenham in November. I was suspended and couldn’t ride her, Brian Hayes my landlord did, but she’s a mare who I sourced for a bunch of my friends, and we watched it in the stands together.
"It’s a different buzz riding a winner and being among the crowd and cheering one home. I saw the enjoyment that my friends got out of that, I got a buzz from Brian riding a Cheltenham winner too. I was involved with her at home and even though I missed out on riding her, it was a very different experience and a day that stood out to me.
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