2009-10 NATIONAL HUNT SEASON:THIS WEEK may end with all the sunshine and financial pizzazz of the Breeders' Cup in California, but it began in Carlow yesterday with a powerful reminder of the changing seasons at Willie Mullins's yard.
The excuse for a media infestation of the champion trainer’s stables was a launch of the 2009-10 National Hunt season, an apparently haphazard date considering jump racing is a year-round activity, but nonetheless not completely coincidental.
After all, once the fleeting careers of Sea The Stars and other flat superstars is over, November is usually when the heavy hitters of the heavy-ground game come out to play.
And this time the majority of those heavy hitters are concentrated with Mullins.
Not for generations has one jumps yard looked to possess such a depth of quality and, with 100 horses in total in his care, Mullins looks to have the quantity side of the deal covered as well.
Already his traditional rival, Noel Meade, has ruled out any chance of regaining the championship title, and with front-line contenders for the Champion Hurdle, the Gold Cup, the Grand National, the Champion Chase and mostly any pot worthy of description, Mullins looks like being the central player in Ireland this winter.
Yesterday’s date was not coincidental either as he expects to start unleashing the full force of his armoury within the fortnight.
“Because of the dry autumn I have been afraid to really work the horses, so we have only really got stuck into them in the last fortnight,” Mullins said yesterday.
“But in the next couple of weeks we should be getting them out, and once they’re fit and ready we will run them.”
If that doesn’t send shivers down a few rivals, then a sight of the cream of the yard yesterday, all 37 of them, might have had them running for the shelters. A pre-canter jog around a crowded sand ring gave an idea of what the assembly area at Balaclava must have looked like: similarly magnificent but with much more profitable prospects.
At one stage, Fionnegas dropped his rider and lashed out at his fellow novice hurdle prospect Quel Esprit, and yet the seething tide of talent barely broke step.
Aidan O’Brien’s battalions in Ballydoyle can produce a similar impression of power, but, over jumps in Ireland, this is a Mullins solo show.
“Last season was wonderful, but I think we are stronger now. We’ve got most of last season’s horses back and we have a few new ones. What we need now is to keep them healthy. You will always get niggles, but avoiding coughs and viruses will be vital,” the man in the middle said.
It’s not just the horses who were saying “Amen” to that yesterday, but it’s safe to say that few, if anyone, whatever the species, are reverberating with a more healthy swagger than Hurricane Fly right now.
The Champion Hurdle favourite is set to return to action in the Morgiana Hurdle at Punchestown later this month and a possible clash with Binocular and Solwhit.
Already, though, his trainer is taking a long-term view.
“We have to find 10lb with both of those horses, but I want to see my horse run well and finish well. Then we have the whole season to progress,” Mullins said, before indicating a pre-festival trip to Cheltenham could be in the offing in December.
“I think a game on the pitch over there would be useful to him.”
Pre-festival excursions to Britain are not usually the Mullins way, but Kempton’s King George is an option for the RSA winner Cooldine, who will reappear in the John Durkan Memorial at Punchestown in a month.
“Kempton isn’t a track that would suit him but I think he would learn a lot over there,” Mullins said, before revealing he also has Gold Cup ambitions for Glencove Marina, the injury-plagued seven-year-old who hasn’t run in 21 months.
“You never know how they will come back after a leg injury, but he will go the Gold Cup route if he continues to please us.”
Then there is a squadron of novices including Cousin Vinny, who goes over fences, and Kempes, who treated hurdles with disdain but is more respectful of the bigger obstacles and has schooled well.
Over hurdles, Mullins couldn’t disguise his excitement at Quel Esprit, who is already having the Ballymore or the Albert Bartlett at Cheltenham being mentioned for him. Another highly-rated novice prospect over hurdles is Cadspeed.
Identifying potential dark horses is always a treat on these media days, and the recent French purchase, Zaidpour, a three-year-old half-brother to Triumph winner Zaynar, is settling in Carlow noticeably well.
However, the attention level on Mullins this winter is likely to mean keeping a degree of shade on any promising animal may be difficult.
Little wonder then he has bowed to the inevitable and become Horse Racing Ireland’s (HRI) “National Hunt Ambassador”.
That will require contributing weekly blogs and learning the delights of Facebook and Twitter.
That may turn out to be a pain for Mullins but, from HRI’s point of view, it’s hard to escape the conclusion they have picked right for this winter.
Willie Mullins
Born:September 5th, 1956.
Riding Career:Six times champion amateur. Cheltenham winner on Hazy Dawn (1982) and Aintree Foxhunters winner on Atha Cliath (1983).
Trainers Licence:1988.
Training Career:Multiple champion, including 2008-09 with 136 winners at a strike rate of 26 per cent.
Cheltenham Six-pack:Mullins has won the Champion Bumper at the festival six times.
Biggest Win:Hedgehunter (2005 Aintree Grand National). Other Major Wins: 2001: King George VI Chase (Florida Pearl). 2003 and 2004: French Champion Hurdle with Nobody Told Me and Rule Supreme. Irish Hennessy: Florida Pearl (1999, 2000, 2001 and 2004), Alexander Banquet (2002), Rule Supreme (2005).
Flat Victories:2009 Ebor Handicap with Sesenta.
