Ben Linfoot discusses some of the main talking points ahead of this year's Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown this weekend.
Is it going to be another Mullins benefit?
Well yeah, obvs. It just so happens that eight Grade One contests in one weekend six weeks before the Cheltenham Festival in Leopardstown is the ideal preparation for the Mullins battalion.
Certainly, winning at the DRF has not hindered Cheltenham results and Mullins hasn’t half been winning at the DRF. Since the meeting was first put together in 2018 Mullins has won 34 of the 55 Grade Ones and his grip is getting tighter.
In both 2022 and 2023 he won six of the eight top-level contests and then last year the inevitable happened; a clean sweep, eight from eight. “It doesn’t usually work out like this,” said Mullins. “I would say the eight winners wouldn’t happen again.”
Well, 12 months on, the prices suggest it could well happen again. The accumulative odds shortened somewhat when Gordon Elliott decided not to run Brighterdayashead in the Irish Champion Hurdle, with that race now looking a Closutton head-to-head between Lossiemouth and State Man.
To shine a light on the Mullins domination, consider this. Gordon Elliott has been the second busiest trainer at the DRF, running 65 horses in the Grade Ones over the seven years – 98 short of the 163 representatives from the Mullins yard. That gap will widen significantly this year.
That Elliott has declined to run his star mare in the Irish Champion Hurdle isn’t too much of a surprise considering his own prioritisation of Cheltenham, but it does open the door for Mullins to go eight from eight once again.
Any GSIs amongst the MBGs?
It’s hard to think of many televised trainer quotes that would earn their percentage of a £500,000 fee, but in a small field Mullins might just come out on top in that heat as well after his ‘G.S.I’ to the Racing TV cameras when hearing of a drift on Allaho at the 2021 Cheltenham Festival.
There will be plenty of Get Stuck In options amongst the Mullins Big Guns this weekend with Majborough, Galopin Des Champs, Ballyburn, Gaelic Warrior and Lossiemouth all likely to be odds-on, making the Mullins accumulators a more tempting betting proposition for a lot of punters.
Ballyburn is one of the most fascinating horses running this weekend, his defeat to Sir Gino over two miles at Kempton easily forgivable on sharpness grounds and his position as Brown Advisory favourite has only solidified following the news that The Jukebox Man is out for the rest of the season.
Still, Ballyburn has to go and do it over fences now, his assignment in the Ladbrokes Novice Chase on Sunday looking a gimme on his hurdles form but less so on what we’ve seen this season over fences, with Elliott potentially having Better Days Ahead and Croke Park waiting in the wings if the Mullins machine fluffs his lines.
Of course, Mullins is mob-handed everywhere you look with Champ Kiely a talented second string to Ballyburn and there’s strength in depth in all the Grade Ones; if not Majborough there’s Ile Atlantique, if not Gaelic Warrior there’s perhaps El Fabiolo, if not Lossiemouth there’s State Man.
You might say if not Galopin Des Champs there’s Fact To File, as well, but the dual Cheltenham Gold Cup winner was soooo good last time in the Savills Chase, that seems inconceivable. Of all the MBGs, GDC is the poster boy of the weekend.
Indeed, if the Mullins multi is to come a cropper you sense the opposition will have to strike early. Maybe all hopes rest with Gavin Cromwell and Hello Neighbour in the Grade One Juvenile Hurdle at 1.50 on Saturday, the second race of the meeting.
If Mullins wins that with Sainte Lucie or Lady Vega Allen or something else then the DRF G1 eight-timer is on once again. The Majborough (4/7), Galopin Des Champs (4/6), Ballyburn (4/7) and Lossiemouth (4/7) accumulator pays around 11/2, for what it's worth, as things stand.
GSI, anyone?
Has Madara’s success last year encouraged the Brits to have a go?
In two words, not really. Perhaps the short-term vision will be to get the home trainers more competitive at this meeting, the luring of the Brits more of a long-term plan.
Maybe it will never happen while Cheltenham is king. Travelling over to Ireland six weeks before the Festival has not appealed to the old guard and while Sophie Leech snaffling a €59,000 winner’s cheque in the big two-mile handicap chase last year showed it could be done, a mass exodus it is not.
There is Harry Derham and Queens Gamble in the Listed Paddy And Maureen Mullins Mares Handicap Hurdle. The ex-Oliver Sherwood mare ran well on her return in second in the Gerry Feilden at Newbury (see free video replay, below) and is rated 1lb lower in Ireland on 134. She’s 4/1 favourite in the antepost books and looks most likely to ‘do a Madara’.
Henry Daly could run Supreme Gift in the Listed three-mile handicap hurdle on the Saturday, looking a likely longshot, while the other two British-trained entries are Here Comes Georgie (50/1) in the Irish Arkle, trained by adopted Yorkshireman Paddy Neville, and Good And Clever (16/1) in the Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle.
Trained by Warren Greatrex, one of the few British trainers to have enjoyed success at the DRF thanks to La Bague Au Roi in 2019, he brings the Regent’s Stroll and Potters Charm form to the table. Well beaten by both, he looks up against it, but at least he’s having a go.
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Discover Sporting Life Plus BenefitsWhich novices qualify for Cheltenham Festival handicaps after their runs this weekend?
Keep an eye out for lurking Festival handicappers at the DRF. We’ve had nine Cheltenham handicap winners that ran at the DRF last time out since 2018 thanks to Bleu Berry, The Storyteller, Mrs Milner, Heaven Help Us, Galopin Des Champs, Maskada, Good Time Jonny, Inothewayurthinkin and Absurde.
Four of those were novices and they are of particular interest this year now the qualifying parameters have changed.
Reminder: Basically, in the non-novice and non-juvenile handicaps you need to have had four runs for a novice chaser to run in a handicap steeplechase and five runs for a novice hurdler to run in a handicap hurdle at the Festival.
Hurdlers that could qualify for a Festival handicap this weekend include World Of Fortunes, Karafon, and Karniquet, while novice chasers needing a fourth run include Firefox, Here Comes Georgie, Touch Me Not, Croke Park and Search For Glory.
It could be worth setting yourself some homework on all of those when the dust settles, keeping a keen eye on the Mullins and Gigginstown horses in particular.
![Search For Glory ridden by jockey Jack Kennedy](/images/news/945x532/e02782c2-d4e1-42f8-82f3-dbeb8afa3789.jpg)
Any bets to be had?
Mullins multis aside, one that intrigues me more than most at this stage is Brave Troop for Charles Byrnes in the 3.50 on Sunday, the Timeless Sash Windows Handicap Hurdle over two miles, with its €88,500 first prize.
Available as the 8/1 favourite in the early betting, expect those odds to be a thing of fantasy if he’s declared for this race 49 days on from sluicing up second time out for his new yard at Navan.
Byrnes mentioned Leopardstown in the aftermath of that race and suggested ‘decent ground’ was important to him, so if it’s looking like ‘yielding’ you might expect to see him line up here in the colours of new owner Paul Byrne, he of The Shunter and Noble Yeats fame, from towards the bottom of the weights.
Battling for favouritism for the William Hill Handicap Hurdle at Newbury next weekend too, he’d run for just £13k more (comparing the first prizes on offer) off a 7lb higher mark in England, and Byrnes loves a DRF pot, winning four handicaps at the meeting from just 11 runners since 2018.
For context, that maestro Willie Mullins (the last word has to go to him) has also had four handicap winners at the DRF – from 104 goes!
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