In this week's Racing Podcast Patrick Mullins says the Melbourne Cup is the next big race father Willie wants to win after he completed the Grade 1 set at Cheltenham.
Energumene's success in the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase completed the Cheltenham Festival championship races set for Mullins during an incredible week where he had a record 10 winners.
So what's next on the hitlist?
“I think the Melbourne Cup is at the top of it," Mullins said. "Max Dynamite hit the bar there and Simenon wasn’t far off either, while we’ve sent other horses like Wicklow Brave and Thomas Hobson.
“Vauban could be one of those for the future.
“The Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris in Auteuil, the French Gold Cup, is another race you’d love to win, but it’s late in our season and you’d need a run or two around Auteuil as it’s quite a unique track.
“They’re two we’ve still to tick off.”
As well as the perfect 10 there were the ones that got away - the likes of Galopin Des Champs who fell at the last when clear in the Turners Novices' Chase and Gaelic Warrior, who was mugged on the line by Brazil in the Fred Winter.
“That’s the highs and lows and you’ve got to swing with the punches,” Patrick said - and that's the theme of the podcast this week.
Mullins Jr nominated A Plus Tard as the 'wow performance of the week', put up Facile Vega as his personal high and Chacun Pour Soi as his personal low, while he had some interesting horses to take out of the meeting for the future.
“One that caught my eye was Ganapathi in the Coral Cup," Mullins said.
“He travelled very smoothly down the hill, not a lot of horses got into it from behind. Now he has tired quite badly on the run in but he hadn’t run in a long time and the ground was quite testing.
“With that run under his belt, coming back to Punchestown, there’s a big 2m4f handicap hurdle there, he’s one that showed a bit of spark and he’s a horse we’ve always liked so he’s one I’d keep on the right side of.”
“I also thought Grangee ran a very good race in the Dawn Run. The step up in trip to 2m4f in the Mares’ Hurdle next year should suit her well.
“Paul Townend jocked me off late on her this year, but I’ll be hoping to get back on her in the Mares’ next year, as I just think two and a half will suit her well and the horses on the front end probably had the advantage.”
To listen to the podcast in full, where you can also hear Martin Greenwood on the handicappers reaction to Cheltenham, as well as Ben Linfoot, Graham Cunningham, David Johnson and Billy Nash on their own highs and lows, just hit the play button via any of the platforms below.
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