Ruby Walsh has compared Willie Mullins’ dominance of Irish jump racing to that of the Dublin six-in-a-row football team.
All-conquering Mullins (66) has been champion trainer in Ireland for the last 15 years and sent out his 4,000th career winner at Fairyhouse on Saturday. This season alone he’s raced to 165 wins and has amassed over €3m in prize-money.
And ahead of the Dublin Racing Festival, it has been claimed his total supremacy is bad for the sport. Mullins-trained horses make up half of the 66 entries for the eight Grade 1 races worth €1.8m at Leopardstown this weekend — the sixth instalment of the two-day Festival concept.
“Of course you would love the competition to be more. But do you blame Dublin for winning six All-Irelands in a row,” said Walsh, who enjoyed huge success for Mullins as a jockey until his retirement in 2019.
“Is it their fault or were they just better than the opposition?
“Do you blame Kilkenny or Limerick for their dominance in hurling now? I don’t know.
“Was AP McCoy bad for jump racing? He won 20 jockey championships in a row and had them all won by September. He was the level that the rest of us had to get to.”
Twelve months ago at the DRF, Mullins saddled seven winners with six at Grade 1 level, and a similar story looks likely this weekend with Galopin Des Champs, Lossiemouth, Blue Lord, Facile Vega, State Man and Appreciate It already odds on for their targeted contests.
“The question I ask is, ‘Why has he become so dominant at these meetings and where has all the opposition gone?’ Sixty-six entries is low for the Grade 1 races and that probably points to the question of where are all the horses gone?
“To be fair to Willie I don’t think looking at his yard and the races that are there could he have any more horses entered. I can’t think of many. The biggest question to me is ‘‘Where are the rest of the horses if Willie has 33’.
Walsh (43) is still part of Mullins’ backroom team having joined as a 17-year-old and has watched his empire grow in those three decades.
“When you look at Willie and where he is in jump racing. He worked his way to where he is. He wasn’t handed it. He started in Closutton with a handful of horses and worked his way up,” added Walsh.
“He might have 33 of the 66 entries. He bought them all for his owners, he’s going to run them all. I think the bigger question is where are the rest of them? Is that unfair, unrealistic, mad?
“Everyone would love to take him on – the question is where have all the horses gone?
“Look at it another way. Appreciate It is taking on Dysart Dynamo, El Fabiolo and Saint Roi – which one of them is going to be the best? They might all be trained in one yard but they’re all going to have a go for the €88,000.”
Mullins’ team this weekend is headed by current Cheltenham Gold Cup favourite Galopin Des Champs, who’ll look to enhance his claims in the Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup on Saturday.
“We’re going to all get a look at Galopin Des Champs over three miles, he hasn’t run at that distance since he won a novice hurdle at Punchestown,” said Walsh.
“He was very good in the John Durkan, he looked a much more mature horse. His style of racing suggested this season that it looked like he had settled down and that he’d be able to go a trip like this.
“He looks like a really exciting horse. He’s tallish, he’s not a massive horse, he’s deceptive.
“He’s taller than he looks when you actually look at him, he’s very lean and athletic.
“He’s a really good jumper
and it’s all about the potential really with Galopin Des Champs, what can he achieve, what can he do. He’s such an exciting horse.
“If you’re thinking if Galopin is going to win a Gold Cup, if he’s going to be the superstar he kind of has to win doesn’t he?”
Energumene’s shock defeat at Cheltenham last week means Blue Lord could catapult himself to being Mullins’ number one Champion Chase contender this weekend — something Walsh didn’t expect before his win at Leopardstown over Christmas.
“He was definitely better than what I was expecting. Probably not a bigger step than Willie was expecting but I think he caught David (Casey) by surprise as well.
“We were both of the opinion he wanted two and a half miles. Maybe we were judging him through Edwardstone and thinking that’s not going to get to Energumenes level.
“When they cross the road directly opposite the stands from you at Leopardstown you were thinking there is only one horse you want to be on here and that’s Blue Lord and I thought he had the race won a long way from home.
“He has never really put much daylight between himself and his opposition from the last fence whereas at Leopardstown he opened up and went right away.
“I thought it was a really good performance.”
■ Racing TV is the only channel showing every race live from the Dublin Racing Festival. This weekend you can join for €12 a month for a entire year (usually €31). Visit racingtv.com/drf for det-ails.
