According to most of the headline numbers, the seventh running of the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown over the weekend was a triumph, both for the sport in Ireland as a whole and, of course, for its pre-eminent trainer, Willie Mullins, in particular.
The record crowd figure of 34,591 from 2023, which was a remarkable 40% jump from 2022, was broken once again, with 36,020 racegoers over the two days, and the estimated percentage travelling from the UK – and leaving significant sums behind in local hotels, restaurants and pubs – was also up, from 27% to 38%.
The extent to which at least some of those visiting fans have opted for Dublin in February over Cheltenham in March remains to be seen. But those in a position to compare the experience and atmosphere of the two jumping festivals may well have left Leopardstown feeling that the DRF has most of the excitement and enthusiasm of its counterpart next month, but without the booze-fuelled, bellicose undercurrent that rarely feels too far from the surface at Cheltenham.
Mullins, meanwhile, will head to the Festival with probably his strongest hand to play and the happy problem, in the novice events in particular, of needing to decide how many of his leading contenders to field in each race.
In some senses, Mullins’s total dominance of the weekend’s biggest events was no great surprise. He saddled 29 of the 48 Grade One runners and seven favourites, five of which started at odds-on. Of those only Gaelic Warrior – soundly beaten by his stable companion, Fact To File, in a two-runner novice chase – failed to oblige.
All the upsets, if such they were, came on day one as Il Etait Temps – at 6-1, by far the biggest price of Mullins’s winners – made the most of a disappointing run by Barry Connell’s Marine Nationale in the Irish Arkle Novice Chase and two more Mullins-trained favourites were beaten by stable companions. By the time El Fabiolo and State Man completed the eight-timer, it felt very much like a formality.
Mullins has, of course, long-since established himself as the most successful jumps trainer the sport has seen, but it is only a few years since his pre-eminence seemed to be under serious threat from Gordon Elliott. Bolstered by the majority of 60 horses removed from the Mullins yard by the owner Michael O’Leary, Elliott took the Irish trainers’ championship all the way to the final Festival of the year at Punchestown several times but could not quite get over the line, including in 2016-17 when he started Punchestown as a 1-5 shot for the title.
Seven years later O’Leary is back as an owner with Mullins – two of the weekend’s beaten Grade One favourites, in fact, were in his colours – and Elliott cut a somewhat forlorn figure at Leopardstown as his half-dozen runners in the main events were all beaten. Farren Glory, the shortest price of the six at 4-1 for the two-mile novice hurdle, finished ninth of 10, while Found A Fifty, 10-1 for the Irish Arkle, was ground down by Mullins’s Il Etait Temps in the final strides.
Amid all the well-earned delight and satisfaction at a job well done, however, it is hard not to wonder whether even Mullins himself might be a little perturbed by the lack of competition. A long succession of odds-on favourites, whether they are successful or not, is bad news for betting turnover and, by extension, betting duty, which is a key consideration when the Irish government decides how much funding to give the industry each year.
Doncaster 12.55 Pic Roc 1.30 Fete Champetre (nb) 2.05 Wreckless Eric 2.40 Ilanz 3.15 Lightfoot Lady 3.50 Pearly Island 4.25 Sanitiser
Huntingdon 1.05 Presenting A Queen 1.40 Nordic Tiger 2.15 Generous Day 2.50 Jango Baie 3.25 Urban Soldier 4.00 Hermes Le Gris 4.35 Shy Love
Lingfield 1.15 Port Noir 1.50 Kinako Mochi 2.25 Aljari 3.00 Rising Force 3.35 Merry Minister 4.10 Arctician 4.45 Level Up
Newcastle 4.30 Beraz 5.05 Gold Aura 5.35 Beylerbeyi (nap) 6.05 Zola Power 6.35 Night Safari 7.05 More Than A Feelin 7.35 Crypto Quest
Elliott, meanwhile, was also painfully aware that 29 of his horses were due to go under the hammer at Tattersalls Ireland on Monday afternoon after Andy and Gemma Brown, who owned horses under the banner of Caldwell Construction, decided – to general surprise – to sell their entire string after two of their runners suffered fatal injuries in the space of a fortnight.
Several of the horses that went under the hammer on Monday – realising a total of €5.29m (£4.52m) – would otherwise have been in action at Leopardstown over the weekend, including Caldwell Potter, the €740,000 (£632,000) top lot and new record-setter for a National Hunt horse sold at auction, who was sold to race for a syndicate that includes Sir Alex Ferguson and lost the Grade One-winner Hermes Allen in a fatal fall at Sandown on Saturday.
Wolverhampton 1.32 Aqwaam 2.02 Due Date 2.32 Peachey Carnehan 3.02 Bright (nap) 3.32 Lovealot Bear 4.07 Ernie’s Valentine 4.37 Optik 5.07 Toplight
Kempton 1.40 Amelia’s Dance 2.10 Masaccio 2.40 Scrum Diddly 3.10 Wot You Wearing 3.40 Killer Kane 4.15 Off The Jury 4.50 Tradecraft
Chelmsford 5.15 Reverberation
5.45 Lunar Rocks
6.15 Blazes Boylan
6.45 Cabeza De Llave
7.15 Upper Hand (nb)
7.45 Capuchinero
8.15 H Key Lails
In all, Elliott managed to buy four of the 29 horses outright, while several more are also likely to remain in the yard for their new owners. The Browns’ unexpected decision to quit, though, is a setback that Elliott cannot really afford as he attempts to make ground on Mullins.
In terms of Ireland’s likely pre-eminence at Cheltenham next month, however, the situation remains largely unchanged. Caldwell Potter will join the Nicholls stable as a 20-1 shot for the Supreme Novice Hurdle, having won a Grade One at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting last time out, but may prove to be more of a long-term chasing prospect according to the bloodstock agent Anthony Bromley, who bought the six-year-old on behalf of his new owners.
There are 14 Grade One races at Cheltenham next month, and Mullins alone has the likely favourite for seven. Just two market leaders for Grade Ones are trained in Britain: Nicky Henderson’s Constitution Hill, in the Champion Hurdle, and his stablemate Sir Gino, in the Triumph. Looking further ahead, Irish stables also house 61 of the 94 entries for the Grand National, which were published on Tuesday along with a new, earlier start time for the big race of 4pm. For Britain’s jumping stables, another difficult and demoralising spring may lie ahead.
