There will be no third straight win at the Dublin Racing Festival for Il Etait Temps after Willie Mullins confirmed the multiple Grade One winner is likely to miss the 2024-25 season.
Owned by the family of former England international cricketer Craig Kieswetter under their Barnane Stud banner in conjunction with their partners at the Hollywood Syndicate, Il Etait Temps found himself in the winner’s enclosure after big races at Leopardstown, Aintree and Punchestown last season.
However, his name has been missing from the entries so far this season and without an engagement for big meetings both in Dublin and Cheltenham in the coming weeks, it has now been acknowledged he has suffered a setback that could see him sidelined for the whole campaign.
Mullins said: “I’m not sure he will make this season at all really which is disappointing, he just got a little knee trouble and we had him right and back in training and then it went wrong again.
“I’ve almost pulled the plug in my own mind and if he comes back for Punchestown that would be the very best thing.”
Meanwhile, Mullins is keen for Jasmin De Vaux to regain some confidence after disappointing in the Lawlor’s of Naas Novice Hurdle.
Owned by Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, the six-year-old went into Closutton folklore when tasting success in the Champion Bumper last year, bringing up Mullins’ century of winners at the Cheltenham Festival in the process.
Expected to take high rank in the novice hurdling division this season, he was short in the betting for all three novice events at Cheltenham and despite not jumping expertly on his hurdling debut, looked on track when making a winning start over obstacles.
But his jumping frailties saw him well held when sent off the heavy favourite in the Naas Grade One, with Mullins admitting he is undergoing plenty of schooling to instill some confidence.
“I’m disappointed with him and if you go back to his point-to-point if you watched it, we were worried about his jumping and when we spoke to people they said he got over the fences but that was it,” said Mullins.
“We’re schooling him and trying to give him confidence and I do wonder if it’s a confidence thing. When a horse does that, you sometimes wonder if it’s a physical thing, but we can’t find any physical problem that would make him do that.
“I could put blinkers on him or cheekpieces on him and I haven’t done that yet. We’ll just give him time to learn and get some confidence.”
Also looking to get back on the right track is Mystical Power, who is another to score at the highest level last term but has been found wanting in two starts in open company this term.
Owned by a collection of the biggest names in racing, the son of Galileo – out of Closutton great Annie Power – could be set for a step up in trip as Mullins explores the possibility of a Stayers’ Hurdle tilt.
He continued: “What can you do? I would like to try him over further. He’s in the Stayers’ Hurdle at Cheltenham and I would probably go out in trip with him all right.
“Whether I run him before, and he could go to the Red Mills Hurdle, but I don’t want to go to the three-mile races as that would take too much to recover from at this stage of the season.”
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