THE 2017/18 IRISH National Hunt trainers’ championship went down to the wire.
The battle between Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott for the title was a thread that had run through the entire National Hunt season and had arrived at the 2018 Punchestown Festival, the final week of the season, set for the crescendo.
That was the year that Al Boum Photo ran out at the final fence in the Growise Chase on the first day of the Punchestown Festival, leaving the way clear for a Gordon Elliott 1-2-3-5 in the Grade 1 race and a total of €89,000 in prize money. At the end of Day 1, four days to go in the season, the bookmakers made Gordon Elliott favourite for the title.
But that assessment – easy in hindsight – obviously under-rated the strength and depth of the Willie Mullins Punchestown team.
On the second day of the Festival that year, Mullins won six of the seven races, including the three Grade 1 contests. On the third day, he won both Grade 1 races. Gordon Elliott won the Champion Novice Hurdle on the Friday with Dortmund Park, but Willie Mullins had the second, third and fourth behind him. It was a gallant effort by Elliott, he had a fantastic season, but, in the end, Mullins was just too strong.
The strength of the Willie Mullins team is a Punchestown theme these days. At the 2021 festival, the champion trainer had 19 winners. At the 2022 festival, he had 14 winners. There are 12 Grade 1 races at the Punchestown Festival and, in each of the last two years, Willie Mullins won nine of them.
Also, there hasn’t been a day at any one of the last five Punchestown Festivals on which there hasn’t been a Willie Mullins-trained winner. That’s quite remarkable. On every day at every Punchestown Festival since 2017, including 2017, Willie Mullins has had at least one winner.
Signs are, there will be no relaxation in the Mullins beat at Punchestown this year, this week. There’s the season that the trainer has had thus far for starters. He has had 220 winners in Ireland, and that’s before Punchestown starts. Already he has broken his own record of 212 that he set in the 2017/18 season.
That doesn’t include the six winners that he had at the Cheltenham Festival, another Gold Cup, another Champion Chase, and leading trainer there again. It does include the 15 winners that he had at Easter, four at Cork and 11 at Fairyhouse, including another Irish Grand National with I Am Maximus, and the Paul Townend masterclass.
The big Mullins names will be there this week too. Galopin Des Champs is the headline act of the week, of the season. He was brilliant again in winning the Gold Cup at Cheltenham and, if he hadn’t stumbled on landing over the final fence in the 2022 Turners Chase, he would be unbeaten over fences, seven for seven.
Audrey Turley’s horse will bid to add the Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup to his Irish Gold Cup and his Cheltenham Gold Cup. It’s not a feat that is easily achieved. Leopardstown in February, Cheltenham in March, Punchestown in April, and concert pitch for each one. There is a reason why Sizing John is the only horse ever to win all three Gold Cups in the same season. That said, Galopin Des Champs will be a long odds-on shot for Wednesday’s feature race, and he deserves to be a long odds-on shot.
Energumene will be a long odds-on shot too for the William Hill Champion Chase on Tuesday, a race in which his main opposition will come from his own yard. Tony Bloom’s horse was very good at Cheltenham last month in winning his second Queen Mother Champion Chase, and the market tells you that it is more likely than not that he will complete the Punchestown Champion Chase back-to-back too.
He may have most to fear from his stable companion Gentleman De Mee, who was impressive in winning the Dublin Chase at the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown in February, and who goes to Punchestown a relatively fresh horse having missed the Cheltenham Festival. His record tells you that he thrives in the spring weather and on the spring ground.
State Man will be odds-on too for the Paddy Power Champion Hurdle on Friday. Winner of the Alanna Homes Champion Novice Hurdle at Punchestown last year, Marie Donnelly’s horse won the Morgiana Hurdle and the Matheson Hurdle and the Irish Champion Hurdle this season before going to Cheltenham and finishing second to Constitution Hill in the Champion Hurdle there. There will be no Constitution Hill in Friday’s line-up, and State Man is the most likely winner by a fair way.
Supreme Novices’ Hurdle runner-up Facile Vega will probably be a warm favourite for the KPMG Champion Novice Hurdle on Tuesday, in the absence of his Cheltenham conqueror Marine Nationale, and the impressive Arkle winner El Fabiolo will probably be odds-on for the Barberstown Castle Chase on Thursday.
Sir Gerhard and Appreciate It and Classic Getaway will be high in the market for the Dooley Insurance Group Champion Novice Chase on Tuesday, while on Thursday Klassical Dream will bid to land the Ladbrokes Champion Stayers’ Hurdle for the third time in a row, and Gaelic Warrior, Champ Kiely and Impaire Et Passe and will be big players in whichever novice hurdle races they contest.
And then there’s the Race & Stay at Punchestown Champion Bumper on Wednesday, a race in which the John Kiely-trained Cheltenham hero A Dream To Share will set a high standard, but a race that Willie Mullins has won seven times in the last eight years and eight times in the last 10, and for which you know that he will have a strong team.
And you know that that’s a theme that will run through the entire festival again this year.