Willie Mullins hopes he'll be "well able" to attend next week's Punchestown Festival following an operation.
The champion trainer was not in attendance at either Fairyhouse's Easter Festival or last week's Grand National meeting at Aintree after undergoing a hip operation.
But Mullins was in Tramore earlier this week as he landed a double with Saint Sam and Macdermott and he has declared himself ready to go for Punchestown.
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He said: "I was in Tramore the other day and I’m on the gallops every morning. I’ve missed very little time.
"It’s fantastic what surgeons can do nowadays. I was amazed. Three weeks ago (Monday) I went in, and they kicked me out of the hospital on Wednesday morning. I was back on the gallop the next morning. I missed a few mornings; I did a little too much early on.
"When I came off the painkillers it soon settled me back! But it’s coming along nicely so hopefully I’ll be well able for Punchestown."
Mullins has enjoyed another incredible campaign, smashing his previous record of 212 Irish winners in a season, with the Champion Chase and Gold Cup among the six races he won at the Cheltenham Festival.
Among his main hopes for Punchestown are Champion Chase winner Energumene, Gold Cup victor Galopin Des Champs, Champion Hurdle runner-up State Man and Ballymore Novices' Hurdle winner Impaire Et Passe, as well as Triumph victor Lossiemouth.
All the big names will be partnered by Paul Townend, whose tactics on Facile Vega and Lossiemouth at the Dublin Racing Festival were questioned by his long-time boss but has since earnt glowing adulation for his performance aboard Galopin Des Champs in the blue riband and for the way he nursed I Am Maximus to Irish National glory on Easter Monday.
“I didn’t call it criticism at the time,” reflected Mullins.
“I just thought it was a tactic that didn’t go right. Put it the other way around. What I asked him to do on I Am Maximus in the Irish National, I had tied him down to instructions because he’s a particularly awkward horse that doesn’t like going right-handed. I’d asked him to go down the inside so he could keep horses on his outside the whole time but after a circuit, Paul changed his mind. He did the exact opposite and went down the outside and it worked.
“In Cheltenham, Paul was a jockey in the Gold Cup. In Fairyhouse, Paul was a horseman in the Irish Grand National. All he’d gleaned from pony racing, from hunting, from just riding, he put into use on I Am Maximus. I thought it was a fantastic ride. Whatever we thought about Galopin Des Champs in the Gold Cup, I thought his riding in Fairyhouse was excellent, something top drawer.
“I always think a good jockey is a guy that can pull a race out of the fire and win on horses that he shouldn’t win on. That’s the difference between great jockeys and good jockeys, I think. And he pulled that one out of the fire. That was an absolutely extraordinary ride.”
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