Willie Mullins

DEL MAR, USA -- "I'm just glad Willie Mullins doesn't train too many Flat horses," said Charlie Appleby after his dual Breeders' Cup winner Rebel's Romance was relegated to the sidings by the runaway train that is Ethical Diamond. The five-year-old's jaw-dropping performance in the Turf, in partnership with Ireland's new champion jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle, had even Mullins stunned as he attempted to take in the magnitude of this latest landmark in his extraordinary career.  Plenty of trainers will agree with Appleby - and the latter did at least...

Champion jumps trainer Willie Mullins will take the first step towards providing His Majesty The King and Her Majesty The Queen with a Royal Ascot winner from their first ever horse they have placed in training in Ireland when Reaching High lines out in a lady riders' handicap at Leopardstown on Friday under Jody Townend.  Reaching High has a number of potential targets at the royal meeting, including the Copper Horse Handicap, in which last year's emphatic Leopardstown winner A Piece Of Heaven went on to run a respectable seventh....

The six 2024/25 Irish National Hunt season champions were confirmed at Punchestown on Saturday afternoon. JP McManus was named the champion owner for the 22nd time, and he said, "To be crowned champion owner is a huge honour for my family and me. Huge thanks to all the trainers, jockeys and stable staff and all who play a huge part in our success." Other season-end leaders were: Willie Mullins, who was winning the champion trainer title for the 19th time; Mullins's son Patrick, who earned his 17th champion amateur title;...

Almanzor (Fr)'s Miss Manzor (GB) brought a sale-topping 29,000gns from Conor McGlone during the final day of the Tattersalls Online April Sale on Wednesday. Offered as lot 23 by Willie Mullins's Closutton Stables, the 5-year-old mare has placed at Grade 2 level. Closutton was the sale's leading consignor, with the 120-rated chaser Iris Emery (Fr) (Spanish Moon) (lot 19) making 25,000gns to trainer Neil King; and the Grade 3 winner Uncle Phil (Ire) (Walk In The Park {Ire}) (lot 36) hammering for 14,000gns to Chester Williams. On the Flat side...

We're off. Well, sort of. In a manner reminiscent of the sputtering start to the Flat turf season, Seven Days returns this week but is immediately taking a short break before promising to be back in time for the Lincoln and the Brocklesby. So, for those of you still in a post-Cheltenham/St Patrick's Day slump, here's a little look back on the week that was. We'll mention Cheltenham only briefly here to reiterate the point that we may well see the 100/1 Triumph Hurdle winner Poniros (GB) back in action...

Former Willie Mullins trainee Vauban (Fr) (Galiway {GB}) made the best possible start to his Southern Hemisphere career, eking out a narrow victory in the 2000-metre G3 Sky High Stakes at Rosehill on Saturday. The chestnut defeated Arapaho (Fr) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) (video). Now trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott for Australian Bloodstock after a reported A$2 million sale, the gelding was a two-time G1 Melbourne Cup starter for Mullins. Bott was happy with the effort and Vauban is expected to point toward the G1 Tancred Stakes, which...

High-class dual-purpose performer Vauban (Fr) (Galiway {GB}), who landed the Triumph Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in 2022 for trainer Willie Mullins, is close to making his debut for Australian trainers Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott.  Vauban has been well-held in his two attempts at winning the Melbourne Cup for Mullins and owner Rich Ricci. The seven-year-old was snapped up by the Waterhouse and Bott combination for a reported $2 million after he finished 11th--beaten just over five lengths--behind Knight's Choice (Aus) (Extreme Choice {Aus}) in the Melbourne Cup in...

CHELTENHAM, UK -- Look to the stars. A reflex action for Sean Flanagan as he passed the post in front on Marine Nationale (Ire) (French Navy {GB}) to win the G1 BetMGM Queen Mother Champion Chase. Any win at Cheltenham is emotional for those closest to the horse, but this was one heavily laced with poignancy, coming less than a month after the death of Marine Nationale's former jockey Michael O'Sullivan at the age of 24. Two years earlier, Marine Nationale had provided him with his first victory at the...

According to the Encyclopedia Britanica, a self-fulfilling prophecy is the "process through which an originally false expectation leads to its own confirmation." Horse racing's self-fulfilling prophesy appears to be the belief that only a select few trainers are capable of eliciting from the sport's finest Thoroughbred athletes their optimum talent. This notion reached an absurd low last month when a commentator for the UK's Racing Post argued that owners in possession of the best steeplechasers in England and Ireland should essentially have their heads examined for sending their horses to...

On the morning of Jonbon's ninth Grade 1 win in the Clarence House Chase at Ascot last Saturday, the recently-retired Aidan Coleman, who partnered Nicky Henderson's chaser to four of those top-level triumphs, opened up about the mental turmoil that comes with being forced out of the saddle through injury. Coleman speaks openly and honestly about coming to terms with being yesterday's man and how he is searching deep within himself to fill the void. Contextualisation alone is not enough to weather this storm but it does give Aidan Coleman...

Just over a month after being granted his trainer's licence, Colm Ryan lit up the Leopardstown Christmas festival when the not unfancied Karate Kid (Ire) (Spanish Moon) ran out a most impressive winner of the 2m4f bumper--a race that has been won by subsequent Grade 1 horses Carefully Selected (Ire), Appreciate It (Ire) and Fact To File (Ire) in recent times.  This was the first time in six years where the powerful yards of Willie Mullins or Gordon Elliott weren't responsible for the winner of the race and Karate Kid...

Uncle Phil (Ire) (Walk In The Park {Ire}), the winner of the G3 Dan & Joan Moore Memorial Handicap Chase at Fairyhouse in January, topped Wednesday's ThoroughBid Christmas Sale when fetching £38,000 from Gordon Miller. Consigned by trainer Willie Mullins, Uncle Phil won five of his 18 starts in his time at Closutton when in the ownership of Joe and Marie Donnelly. The seven-year-old is out of the Saint des Saints (Fr) mare Synthe Davis (Fr), making him a full-brother to this year's Novices' Championship Final Handicap Hurdle winner Helnwein...