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Willie Mullins Cheltenham Festival reflections and weekend preview

By Willie Mullins

Sporting Life Plus

Sat March 22, 2025 · 2h ago

Willie Mullins looks back on the yard's 10 Cheltenham Festival winners before providing a horse-by-horse guide to his Sunday team.

We had a great week in Cheltenham. Probably not the results a lot of people thought would happen but when some of our stars didn't win some of our other ones popped up to get the numbers up. State Man was a big disappointment and Galopin Des Champs another one, Majborough too, so it just shows you what you need to have success in Cheltenham. You can't go there expecting to have winners, you just hope, like everyone does, and we had a great week so we can't complain.

Galopin Des Champs didn't seem to turn up on the day. Once they jumped off I thought this fellow's not acting on the ground; I didn't know what was wrong but that was my first thought. He didn't even race to the first fence, he got competitive about the fourth last but under duress I think. He still ran a great race and is young enough to be back and be very competitive next year in the Gold Cup.

Fact To File and Mark Walsh en route to landing the Ryanair Chase

Fact To File was probably the performance of the week. He is spectacular in his ability to jump and attack fences on the racetrack in the way that he did. He has the ability to go back in trip but I still think he is a Gold Cup horse. But when a horse can do what he did in the Ryanair, that's nice to have in your armoury going into next year's Cheltenham.

Lossiemouth did what she had to do and I was delighted for Rich [Ricci, owner] to get a winner in Cheltenham when so many top-class horses didn't get into the winner's enclosure. It's very important for trainers to provide winning opportunities for people that keep racing going and, indeed, for trainers like myself.

Kopek Des Bordes has a serious engine and to be able to do that over two miles on ground that walked more good than yielding. He is a very exciting horse for Charlie McCarthy and family for the future.

Lecky Watson was named after a famous huntsman in the Carlow area back in the early part of the last century. He surprised me a little but Sean O'Keeffe gave him a very uncomplicated ride, giving him plenty of daylight and keeping him clear of traffic and the horse obliged by jumping and galloping his way to victory.

Lecky Watson on his way to winning the Brown Advisory

Delighted to get Jimmy Du Seuil to win after he ran a cracker last year in the Ballymore. He looks a nice staying type for the future. He had a little setback early in the season so didn't go novice chasing and he fitted right into the handicap bracket when it turned out he was only going to get the second half of the season so we kept him for either the Coral Cup or the Martin Pipe and he duly obliged for Ed Ware. That was a nice tonic for Ed and Mary after losing their good Flat horse Poker Face.

In the bumper all hell broke loose when the owners and friends of Bambino Fever saw her take up the running halfway up the straight and they certainly enjoyed their winner by voicing their approval and taking over the winner's rostrum during the presentation. It was fun to be there and delighted to give Jody Townend a winner with her father, sister and brother there. Jody is a fantastic rider and it's great reward for her commitment to racing.

We threw enough ammunition at the Triumph Hurdle but all these horses were bought to be dual purpose Triumph Hurdle type horses. The fact that we didn't get them out to run is just a matter of consequence between hold-ups and coming back in late for training after being bought at the sales and it didn't deter me from running them as they had done all the schooling and galloping. I was hoping that one of them might come up and one of them did come up Poniros. His Flat form entitled him to win if East India Dock was favourite, Poniros had beaten him at Royal Ascot last year and one was 6/4 and the other was 100/1, a lot of people had seen that form and threw a few quid on him because of that.

Indeed one man said to me 'if Willie Mullins is running 11 in the race, he doesn't know which one is going to win' so he had as good a chance as any!

We had some disappointments but we had a lot of horses that ran well and we had five in the first eight. I thought it was a good exercise and it shows we have some nice talent for the Flat staying handicaps and nice novices for next season.

Kargese won the County and we felt a fast run race with a hood on her would make her more rideable because she's quite difficult to ride. Paul was very keen when he saw the weights that she could be his ride for the County Hurdle and he was proved correct; hopefully there are more big days in her.

It was a copybook performance from Dinoblue, carrying a penalty to beat Allegorie De Vassy. She went out and jumped and stayed, a tremendous performance.

Jasmin De Vaux has probably been crying out for this trip all season because he's not as comfortable negotiating hurdles at a faster pace. I think that was a big help here and Paul got a tremendous jump at the second last out of him and then he paddled the last a little bit but as we saw last year, he has an engine coming up that hill and, once he heard The Big Westerner coming after him, he just ran on again like a good horse.

After State Man, Majborough was probably the unluckiest one; just not jumping the way he can jump but I think we can rectify that and bring out the best in him in the future. I wouldn't be discounting him by any stretch of the imagination.

Sunday

JALILA MORIVIERE - 1.43 Limerick

This looks an opportunity for with her rating even though she is rated 6 lbs lower in England, we felt it better to take our chance in this contest and hopefully she'll get her practice.

DR EGGMAN - 2.53 Limerick

Dr Eggman has been very disappointing this season. I've been very impressed with his work this week after his run at Punchestown and our fellows form from last season should be good enough and I'd take him to do his job.

FUN FUN FUN - 4.03 Limerick

She was disappointing at Exeter. I think the trip was too short for her and this trip should be more up her street and the hood (retained) should give her a better chance to settle.

Saturday

C'EST TA CHANCE - 3.20 Navan

He must have a very good chance. The trip might be significant here. We give him the benefit of the doubt that his last two runs were over a trip too short for him and hopefully he'll get back to winning ways here.

BON VIVEUR - 5.40 Navan

This is a nice jumping type and I'm very happy with him. Luckily for Jody she gets the ride as Patrick is riding in Kelso. I think this is a nice type of horse and the track, ground and trip will suit him.

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