Willie Mullins

From Royal runners, to formidable teams and top-notch stallions bidding to break their Royal Ascot hoodoo, here are five things to watch out for on the opening day of the eagerly-anticipated meeting. It promises to be a week to savour.  Things Are Looking Rosy For Shapoor Mistry Bidding to continue a glorious summer for Oaks-winning owner-breeder Shapoor Mistry is Rosy Affair (Havana Grey), who lines up for the G1 King Charles III Stakes. The five-year-old mare, who won the Listed Cecil Frail Stakes over six furlongs at Haydock on her...

Minutes after Ethical Diamond (Awtaad) shattered the Del Mar clock in the 2025 GI Breeders' Cup Turf, on-site analysts declared it to be one of the most remarkable wins in the World Championship's 42-year history. The 5-year-old gelding had not just defied his 27-1 odds; he had completely rewritten a cross-disciplinary rulebook. Seven months later, National Hunt legend Willie Mullins is still wearing the quiet smile of a man who pulled off the ultimate heist in transitioning a maiden hurdle winner at Punchestown in February into a Breeders' Cup champion...

The 2025 Grand National winner Nick Rockett has been withdrawn from the 2026 edition due to coughing. Pied Piper (New Approach), the first reserve, has been added to the lineup for Saturday's contest at Aintree. The son of Walk In The Park is trained by Willie Mullins for Stewart and Sadie Andrew. Willie's son Patrick, who also partnered the gelding to success 12 months ago, said, "It is 72-hour declarations for the Grand National, and we wanted to give him every chance, but he gave a few coughs this morning...

Willie Mullins has another classy French recruit to look forward to after Pierre Boulard and Harold Kirk teamed up to buy the Xavier Blanchet-trained Nippon Go (Beaumec De Houelle) for €300,000 on Arqana Online. A winner of a French bumper by over three lengths at Lignieres En Berry earlier this month, the three-year-old will go into training with the dominant Irish Champion National Hunt trainer. Nippon Go was the most expensive horse sold during the latest Arqana Online session.

Fresh from another dominant display at the Cheltenham Festival, champion jumps trainer Willie Mullins provides the lowdown on leading Dubai Sheema Classic hope Ethical Diamond and more Not content with tightening his grip on the National Hunt sphere following another dominant display at the Cheltenham Festival, Willie Mullins will be taking aim at the world's best racehorse Calandagan in Saturday's Dubai Sheema Classic with his Breeders' Cup hero Ethical Diamond - and the bad news for his contemporaries on the Flat is that the champion jumps trainer has revealed that...

Rich Ricci, an owner synonymous with Cheltenham Festival success for the best part of two decades, finally has his hands on the prize that he coveted above all others after Gaelic Warrior (Maxios) produced a coming-of-age performance under Paul Townend to win Friday's Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup. The race had a tragic postscript, however, when another Festival mainstay in Envoi Allen (Muhtathir), making his eighth appearance at the meeting, sadly collapsed and died after finishing ninth on what was intended to be the final start of his illustrious career before...

CHELTENHAM, UK -- Craig Kieswetter has been a top-class sportsman in his own right but the former England and Somerset cricketer was emphatic in his assessment of what mattered most to him after his family's Il Etait Temps (Jukebox Jury) won the BetMGM Queen Mother Champion Chase.  "I'd rather win at Cheltenham than win a World Cup," said the South African-born Kieswetter, who, with his parents Wayne and Belinda and brother Ross, owns Ridgemont Stud in South Africa's Western Cape as well as Barnane Stud in Ireland.  Il Etait Temps,...

CHELTENHAM, UK -- Four times a Cheltenham Festival winner and still only seven years old. From the Triumph to two Mares' Hurdles and now the Unibet Champion Hurdle itself, Lossiemouth's love affair with Prestbury Park, the most hallowed ground in National Hunt racing, continued unbroken on Tuesday as the mare landed her 14th win in a career spanning 18 starts - and counting.  The roars of more than 57,000 racegoers carried her home, but in the end it was easy, as Lossiemouth's main danger Brighterdaysahead capitulated between the final two...

Connor King, who was twice crowned champion apprentice jockey on the Flat in Ireland, will bid to become the youngest ever trainer to win the Grand National when sending Oscars Brother (Malinas) to Aintree later this spring.  The 27-year-old handler - who only has two horses at his County Tipperary stable - has admitted he is "trying not to think too much" about the prospect of Oscars Brother being a serious Grand National contender. The handicapper has given Oscars Brother a 155 rating - a weight of 10st 13lb -...

Willie Mullins, Gavin Cromwell, Henry de Bromhead, Gordon Elliott and Ger Lyons' Glenburnie Racing are among the team captains confirmed for the Treo Eile Christmas Show on Thursday, December 11 at Emerald Equestrian Centre near Enfield. Also stepping up to the plate for the HRI Treo Eile Thoroughbred Classic team event are a number of past or present jockeys, including Paul Townend, Jack Kennedy, Patrick Mullins, Jody Townend, Mark Walsh, Colin Keane, Nicola Burns, Robbie Power and Kevin Manning. The HRI Treo Eile Thoroughbred Classic, the feature class on the...

Fresh from sending out four winners at Cheltenham's November Meeting, Dan Skelton issued another statement of intent in his quest for a first British trainers' championship when revealed as the new trainer of the two most expensive lots sold during Monday's opening session of the Arqana Autumn Sale. In the space of three lots, the three-year-olds Mets Ta Ceinture (Hunter's Light) (lot 380) and Merci Mam (Karaktar) (lot 378) sold for an aggregate sum of €1,230,000. Both horses went through the ring following the decision to dissolve the partnership between...

In this series, the TDN takes a look at notable successes of European-based sires in North America. This week's column is highlighted by the Breeders' Cup meeting. Ethical Diamond Hands Mullins The Turf Training maestro Willie Mullins landed the biggest Flat victory of his career with Ethical Diamond (Awtaad) in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf on Saturday (video). A winner of a brace of valuable handicaps across the pond, the five-year-old gelding has also run seven of his lifetime starts over hurdles. Bred by W. Kennedy, Ethical Diamond is owned...