Cheltenham Festival preview: Danny Mullins waits on big rides

The Willie Mullins team is a very tight one, as you’d expect. The fact they’re enjoying unparalleled success is down in no small part to that joint effort, the people at home, the work riders, the machine purrs because everyone knows their role.

And for Danny Mullins, right now, in terms of Cheltenham at least, his is to sit and wait.

This is Grade One Danny Mullins, rider of three top-flight winners on the opening day of the Dublin Racing Festival. But as I speak to him, little over four weeks away from the showpiece meeting, he doesn’t know a single one of his Festival rides – for certain. Paul Townend picks first, then Willie himself fills in the gaps, and for Danny to ride big winners in March, one of them needs to get it wrong – then the other, from his perspective at least, right.

"Anything can happen, and fingers crossed I might end up on the right one somewhere but come Cheltenham, Paul usually has a better handle on form, they’ve all met each other and seen who’s who, but he might get it wrong somewhere and hopefully I might be the beneficiary of that!", this Mullins smiles.

“Willie doesn’t tend to tighten the screw on those very good ones until he gets to the spring. Plenty of other yards are out earlier and win while Willie’s are only building up and that’s a good tactic for them as well but it’s more difficult for Paul to get a handle on them at the Dublin Racing Festival and come Cheltenham, he probably has a better read but there are so many good ones I hope his decisions are difficult again.

“The Dublin Racing Festival has been very good for me. I suppose the novices are very difficult to pick at that time of the season, for Paul to get a true read on, but come Cheltenham he normally doesn’t get it wrong. But fingers crossed we’ll find a way to make him get it wrong at some point!”"

So what of those DRF winners – starting with Goffs Irish Arkle Novice Chase winner Il Etait Temps.

“I got a great feel off him at Limerick behind Gaelic Warrior. I think I was going into the Dublin Racing Festival hoping the better ground might bring out some more of him too. He’s quite a small horse so the heavy ground in Limerick made the fences very big but he still jumped very well on the day.

“I was hoping with a little better ground he’d be able to show the improvement. He has handled the soft ground but as it dries out a little bit through the spring he can keep improving again and he probably showed the last day that two miles is his optimum trip.

“He does stay two-and-a-half but two looks to be where he’s at his best on his form.”

Kargese lead home a one-two-three-four for the yard in the McCann FitzGerald Spring Juvenile Hurdle but her rider wouldn’t be certain that the quartet would finish in the same order next time.

“Sir Gino looks very visually impressive and is a very good horse but I hope there’s some more strength to the depth of the form of the Spring Hurdle. The first four home from Willies and any one of those could pop up and win at Cheltenham,” he argued.

“Storm Heart got close to me, Majborough back in third ran quite keen on the day and Bunting ran on well in fourth. There’s a solid case for all making the necessary improvement to be good enough to win a normal Triumph and it’s probably the one division where horses are still developing.

“What you are seeing pre-Christmas versus what you see at Cheltenham in March can be two different things, it will be an ever-evolving field, but fingers crossed we’ll be able to beat Sir Gino with one of them.”

Dancing City was a 16/1 winner of the Nathaniel Lacy & Partners Solicitors Novice Hurdle and Mullins admits: “It was a surprise that he won. He was quite disappointing on his first run of the season for Paul in the maiden at Navan but found the necessary improvement to win another maiden there the next day when I got to ride him, and we knew he’d need to probably find as much if not more again to go and win a Grade One but he did.

“It’s probably a case of another step on the ladder to be good enough to win an Albert Bartlett but he looks in great nick at home and has the potential to do that. You couldn’t write him off, and I think he goes there with a good chance.”

One horse the jockey can expect to partner is Gala Marceau in the Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle, where she’ll meet a familiar foe.

So, what did he make of her return behind another stablemate in Ashroe Diamond at Doncaster last month?

“I think it was a good run. She settled much better than she had on her debut last year so that probably showed she’s a bit older and more mature mentally. Physically we’d seen at home she’d improved that way but to see how much she’s mentally strengthened was good at Doncaster and I think the trip will be the big thing for her at Cheltenham,” Mullins said.

“What she showed us in Auteuil last May is what got me excited. Look, the way Lossiemouth won at Cheltenham a few weeks ago, it’s hard to see what can beat her but we were close on her tail last year and hopefully we’ll be able to frighten her in some way, shape or form over two-and-a-half miles.”

Mullins has ridden two Cheltenham Festival winners – successive Stayers’ Hurdles aboard Flooring Porter. He won’t be able to partner him this time around if he heads to the National Hunt Chase but would understand it if connections went down that route.

“It would suit him. I think he was probably just found out a little at Leopardstown at Christmas, but it was still a good, solid run. He jumped very well when he won at Cheltenham in his first run over fences and I think he could run a very big race."

That first success in 2021 was during the Covid pandemic, no crowd in attendance, but remains the highlight of the rider’s career to date.

“He’s a very special horse for me. I was second in a Champion Bumper, second in an Albert Bartlett, second in a Champion Hurdle, I’d been second in about every race you can name so to get that first one was just very special,” he reflects.

“That ten or 20 seconds after I crossed the line, even though there was no crowd and I probably knew every face in it, was amazing. They were there immediately after I pulled up.

“You could hear every individual shout as you came down the chute and knowing every face down it was great. There was nothing lost there for me.

“But for the syndicate I was delighted he went back and won the second year – for them to be able to soak it up with the crowd in there was great – but for me, personally, the first year sticks out.”

Few would bet against Danny Mullins’ name appearing on the Cheltenham scoreboard again in 2024. His reputation as a big-race jockey continues to soar. But for now, it’s time to sit and wait, and hope Townend gets it wrong at least once.

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