Elite sport is all about making the right decisions. And in the sunshine at Aintree on Thursday you were given a timely reminder as to why the Willie Mullins team is reimagining the possible in the National Hunt game.
Four Grade One races on the card; four prizes heading back to Closutton. And they came in every shape and size.
Impaire Et Passe, in first-time cheekpieces and fresh from missing Cheltenham, wins the EBC Group Manifesto Novices' Chase.
Murcia, eighth in the Fred Winter at Prestbury Park, freewheels to Grade One glory in the Boodles Anniversary 4-Y-O Juvenile Hurdle.
Gaelic Warrior, who the trainer hasn’t been entirely happy with for much of the season and despite a Ryanair Chase entry didn’t even travel to England last month, steps up to three miles and wins the Brooklands Golden Miller Chronograph Bowl Chase.
Forty minutes and another Constitution Hill fall later, Lossiemouth follows them into the winners’ enclosure. And Mullins talks us through the success as he tries to hold up four fingers and his hat simultaneously for the photographers. He finds that difficult. It’s somehow reassuring as you listen, nod, and look at the big screen.
That’s the moment the main market rival falls, hemmed in on the heels of the leaders, switched for racing room while quickening. He takes off a stride early and is down.
But before then Paul Townend had made the big decision. He sensed what was happening, closed the exit to Nico De Boinville’s right and seized first run. When a team is as dominant as this one, it isn’t only the main man who makes the right calls.
And you look at the silks the winners have carried to victory, those belonging to Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, Kenny Alexander and Susannah and Rich Ricci.
Hugely powerful and successful business people who aren’t accustomed to playing second fiddle to anyone. So how do you keep them, and the countless others who spend big money and send their new recruits to County Carlow, happy? By winning big races, year in year out.
The temptation to test out pastures new, become a bigger fish in a smaller pond, just isn’t there. Joe Chambers, racing manager to the Riccis, gets a ringside seat for some of the decision-making process.
“Rich and I had our view on Gaelic Warrior last season and have stayed out of it this time. We haven’t had any input on him,” he said.
“I can’t tell you how good a training performance it is by him to get the horse back in that form today. He just hasn’t had a straight run with him. I went through all our February bills only last week and his was six pages long.
“That’s a serious training performance to get him right and to go for this race rather than the Melling on Friday too which was the more natural route. Perhaps his three-mile novice win at Punchestown told everyone something, but he used to jump right, so he put a hood on him, and it’s a huge help. Who would have said that last year?
“It’s continued this year. Patrick said he was going to ride him cold, and he did. And then there’s Lossiemouth.
“She came to Cheltenham off the back of a bad fall. We don’t need to go over old ground and what was said the week before Cheltenham, but as for today Willie was always adamant this was her trip and while she hadn’t run here before, he felt it was more of a home game for us than it was for Constitution Hill.
“We kept going back to two years ago when he was in his pomp, and he beats a nine-year-old Sharjah by a couple of lengths. I think we know what Lossiemouth would do in receipt of seven pounds from a nine-year-old Sharjah, as much as we love him and he’s on parade here on Friday.
“She had a nice experience after a really bad fall (at Cheltenham) and didn’t appreciate that ground today. It’s getting quicker with every race, and you could see she was jumping up and not really letting herself down on it. She hung a little, but I thought Paul was brilliant throughout the race.
“He told us what he was going to do beforehand and carried it out to the letter and I think a lot of his mid-race tactics probably contributed to what happened to Constitution Hill. We wanted him to bring us into the race but didn’t expect it to happen at the third last.
“I was gutted for Mr Buckley, who I’ve known for a long time, and Nicky, but we know all about what it’s like having a faller. We saw that today in the juvenile race where we so sadly lost Willy De Houelle.”
So what is it that makes Mullins special?
“He was champion trainer in two countries last year for a reason. He has the talent he has for a reason. He’s able to keep these big business people in love with him for a number of years too,” Chambers continued.
“Arguably off the back of the early success he, Rich and Susannah had, he’s built a huge business, his gut instinct is usually the right one and that’s what we all trust.”
And your mind flicks back to a dark, cold Sunday afternoon at the Dublin Racing Festival when Gaelic Warrior fluffed his lines and Lossiemouth suffered a horror fall in the Irish Champion.
Ricci and Mullins exchanged a few words in the parade ring afterwards, but you looked at the body language, and wondered to yourself whether the magic was still there in that particular relationship.
“We had seven runners over those two days, three went off favourite, one odds-on, and our best position was third or fourth. It was a long way to Cheltenham from there, never mind Aintree and a lot of those horses haven’t fired since,” Chambers admits.
“We’ve had a couple of unfortunate fatalities this season, lots of injuries but those are the swings and roundabouts of the game.
“We sold Horantzau D’airy recently, he’s won us a lot of prize-money this season and I wish his new owners the best of luck in Saturday’s Randox Grand National, next season and the season beyond.
“But it’s 20 years since Rich got involved in the game which means he’s 20 years older. Maybe we’ll have a core of 20 or 25 horses now and concentrate on quality, it’s not always going to work out that way, but we’re going to keep on buying and trying. We’ve had three or four fail the vet in the last couple of weeks but managed to get one over the line yesterday and we’ll keep trying.
“It’s days like this that you’re there for.”
Dan Skelton is hovering around the winning camp and offers Mullins an outstretched hand. “You can stop now, mind,” the champion trainer-elect tells the current title holder.
Mullins smiles. He accepts the latest of the four trophies and talks to racecourse photographer John Grossick about the correct pronunciation of Lossiemouth.
They discuss Ayr next week.
“Oh yes, hopefully we’ve a good team going there,” Mullins shouts.
He’s not stopping, Dan. Not for some time yet.
The wheels are already in motion for next season, new recruits going into pre-training. To be the best you can’t sit still. Restocking, always restocking.
That’s part of the magic. Along with getting the big decisions right more often than not.
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