Racing

Gigginstown House Stud back with Willie Mullins after six-year hiatus

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary had split with Mullins over increased fees

Trainer Willie Mullins: back with Gigginstown. Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho
Trainer Willie Mullins: back with Gigginstown. Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho
Mon Sept 12 2022 - 18:09

Gigginstown House Stud and Willie Mullins are back together, six years after their high-profile split.

In September 2016 it was announced Mullins would no longer be training for the prominent owners, leading to the loss of about 60 horses from his Closutton yard.

In a statement released at the time, Gigginstown – owned by Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary and managed by his brother Eddie – mentioned increased fees as the reason for the split.

However, that statement did not rule out the pair teaming up again in the future and that has now come to fruition.

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In 2019 O’Leary announced a plan to phase out his National Hunt team over the next five years, but Gigginstown continue to be major players in jump racing on both sides of the Irish Sea.

Just last season the Gordon Elliott-trained Conflated carried the familiar maroon and white silks to Irish Gold Cup success at Leopardstown, while Delta Work denied his dual Grand National-winning stablemate and fellow Gigginstown star Tiger Roll a grand finale in the Glenfarclas Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.

Gigginstown and Mullins have also previously enjoyed Cheltenham Festival success together with the likes of Sir Des Champs and Don Poli, while Valseur Lido, Outlander and Apple’s Jade were all Grade One winners when trained by Mullins.

This season they will team up once more after Gigginstown snapped up Shanbally Kid, who won a Clonmel bumper for Richard O’Brien in April before being bought by Mullins and his bloodstock agent Harold Kirk for £190,000 at the Tattersalls Cheltenham Sale.

“All I will say is that it is a long road that doesn’t turn,” Eddie O’Leary told Thoroughbred Daily News.

“We’ve had some great days with Willie and we are looking forward to having a couple with him this season again.

“Shanbally Kid will be the first of them. We bought him after he won his bumper at Clonmel.”