Willie Mullins raised the bar even higher over the weekend at Leopardstown.
The Irish Champion trainer won all eight Group 1’s on offer at the Dublin Racing Festival, sending an ominous warning to all his rivals on both sides of the Irish Sea.
Mullins’ nine wins meant he topped last year’s record by one, and he took a moment to reflect on the magnitude of it all.
Willie Mullins – devastating form! (Pic – Supplied)
“It’s been a superb weekend. It’s extraordinary and we know that” he said. “We have tremendous owners, and they invest in Irish racing. We are the beneficiaries and are very lucky.”
Nephew Danny Mullins started the ball rolling for the yard on Saturday winning the first three Group 1’s on stable ‘second strings’ whilst securing a 534/1 winning treble.
Dancing City (16/1) stayed on from the front-end to deny his more fancied stable-companion Predators Gold by a length and a quarter in the Novice Hurdle.
Half an hour later, Danny was to the fore again, in the vanguard on the mare Kargese, they found that little bit extra to fend off stable-mate Storm Heart by just over a length.
Danny completed his Group 1 hat-trick aboard the tenacious grey Il Etait Temps in the Irish Arkle.
Il Etait temps gives Danny Mullins his hat-trick (Pic – Supplied)
Going into the weekend many assumed the Arkle division to be cut and dried, with Marine Nationale hard to oppose.
That was not to be with the odds-on favourite never able to get competitive, trailing in a disappointing fifth of six runners.
Il Etait Temps produced a career-best chase performance, running on strongly after landing in fourth after the last fence to snare the gallant pacemaker Found A Fifty by a neck at the line.
Galopin Des Champs confirmed his seasonal resurgence by defeating his arch-rival Fastorslow and secure back-to-back Irish Gold Cups.
The emphatic four-and-a-half length victory confirmed Galopin Des Champs’ status as the best ‘jumps’ horse on the planet according to official ratings.
Sunday followed a similar pattern in that Willie won all four Group 1’s, but these were all more fancied.
Fact To File was victorious for JP McManus and jockey Mark Walsh in the Ladbrokes Novices Chase, just the second Group 1 match in Ireland after Gaelic Warrior fell at the last.
Paul Townend, the stable’s retained rider, then got into the action delivering aboard Ballyburn, El Fabiolo and State Man.
Ballyburn cemented his place atop the betting for the Supreme Novices Hurdle at Cheltenham with a thoroughly convincing seven-length victory in the Novice Hurdle.
Mullins said of the performance: “He met hurdle after hurdle right and was in control the whole way. Paul was very happy with how he did things. He did everything right over the minimum trip, which is good.”
The most eye-catching of the whole weekend was when El Fabiolo maintained his unbeaten record over fences in the Ladbrokes Dublin Chase.
A little tactical, as the mare Dinoblue made the running at an initially steady pace in attempting to bag a fifth straight success, with El Fabiolo racing just off the pace in second. Taking it up approaching two out, the result was not in doubt, and El Fabiolo come home in a canter by eight-lengths.
State Man completed the Group 1 eight-timer for Willie Mullins by defending his Irish Champion Hurdle title.
He did so in facile fashion quickening up smartly approaching the final hurdle to pass his stablemate, Impaire Et Passe and ease home by over five and a half lengths.
