Burrows Saint: Grand National contender

Cheltenham Festival success puts Willie Mullins in the British trainers' title hunt

By John Ingles

Horse Racing

Mon March 28, 2022 · 4y ago

With Willie Mullins in contention for the British trainers’ championship, John Ingles recounts his near-miss six years ago.

Will Mullins make a challenge?

If Aidan O’Brien can do it on the Flat, why not Willie Mullins over jumps?

O’Brien was champion trainer in Britain for the first time in 2001 and won the title for a sixth time when last successful in 2017. He emulated fellow Irishmen Paddy Prendergast, winner of three consecutive British Flat titles in the 1960s, and Vincent O’Brien, champion trainer in Britain in 1966 and 1977, in taking the title across the Irish Sea.

After saddling a record ten winners at the Cheltenham Festival, Mullins now sits fourth in the British jumps trainers’ championship behind Paul Nicholls, Dan Skelton and Venetia Williams, with a deficit of around £573,000 to make up on Britain’s reigning champion.

Victory in the Grand National, for which last year’s fourth Burrows Saint is Mullins’ shortest-priced entry at around the 20/1 mark, would close much of that gap in one hit.

‘We were half-thinking of mounting a challenge over in Aintree, but it’s only two and a half weeks [since Cheltenham] and it wasn’t our game plan,’ Mullins said. ‘You often find when you do things that isn’t in your game plan they don’t work out.’ But with 15 Irish titles already to his name, Mullins would no doubt be keen to press for a British championship if results at Aintree went his way.

ALL UK & Ireland replays - watch for free

Long time since it was last achieved

Before he turned his attention to the Flat and won those two titles in Britain, the last Irishman to be champion jumps trainer in Britain was Vincent O’Brien, successful in 1952/3 and again the following season.

O’Brien won only five races in Britain in 1952/3, but they included the Grand National won by Early Mist and the Cheltenham Gold Cup which went to Knock Hard who also won the Great Yorkshire Handicap at Doncaster which was then another of the season’s more valuable jumping prizes. As a result, O’Brien clinched the title narrowly from Captain Ryan Price who saddled 78 winners!

The Grand National was once more instrumental in O’Brien retaining his title in Britain the following season as he won it again, this time with Royal Tan who was one of four winners for the stable at Aintree which was then a mixed meeting featuring just seven races over jumps.

Earlier, at Cheltenham, O’Brien’s winners included Quare Times in the National Hunt Chase, the horse who would go on to win the 1955 National and thus complete a unique hat-trick for his trainer of winning three consecutive Grand Nationals with three different horses.

How close did Mullins come in 2016?

In any case, Mullins has launched a concerted bid for the British title before, failing by less than £100,000 to peg back Nicholls in 2015/16. But had the title been decided instead by first three earnings only – in line with statistics published in Timeform’s Chasers & Hurdlers annual – rather than total prize money, Mullins would actually have come out on top by around £23,000. As it was, the battle between Nicholls and Mullins went down to the final day of the season at Sandown.

Mullins had seven winners at Cheltenham that season, including Annie Power in the Champion Hurdle, while Djakadam and Don Poli picked up significant place money in the Gold Cup. As a result, the stable made more of an assault than usual on Aintree and returned home with six winners; Apple’s Jade in the Anniversary 4-y-o Hurdle, Annie Power in the Aintree Hurdle, Bacardys in the Grade 2 bumper, Yorkhill in the Mersey Novices’ Hurdle, Douvan in the Maghull Novices’ Chase and Ivan Grozny in the handicap hurdle for conditional jockeys and amateur riders that follows the Grand National.

In the big race itself, none of Mullins’ four runners completed, but in hindsight the most crucial setback to his British title hopes, it turned out, came when Vautour, sent off at 1/5 after winning the Ryanair at Cheltenham, fell in the Melling Chase worth £112,160 to the winner.

Even so, Mullins came away from Aintree with a lead of nearly £200,000 over Nicholls but it proved to be a short-lived advantage. When Vicente won the Scottish Grand National, he was the highlight of a four-timer for Nicholls at Ayr who started the day at 5/1 to be champion but ended it the 5/6 favourite – before another four-timer at Wincanton the next day.

Nicholls finished the season with a flourish, with 27 winners in the final month, but the championship still hung in the balance at Sandown’s Finale meeting.

Mullins had three seconds (Nicholls saddled the third home in the same three races) earlier on the card before Nicholls finally clinched his tenth trainer’s title when his two runners, Just A Par and Southfield Theatre, finished second and fourth in the bet365 Gold Cup in which Mullins’ pair were well beaten.

Nicholls won just two Grade 1 races in Britain all season, whereas 13 of Mullins’ 27 winners in Britain came at the top level.

Safer gambling

We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.

If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.

Like what you've read?