Willie Mullins Stable Tour

Form profile

A 170-rated chaser, he has won the Gold Cup at the Cheltenham Festival in 2019 and 2020. He finished a close third in the race last season.

Trainer says

I’d rather I had him in better order, to be honest. I brought him away to work recently and I wasn’t happy with him. We were probably a bit hard on him, as we have only got one run into him this season, and maybe the amount of work we gave him backfired slightly. I gave him a few easy days after that work and he looks in a bit better form in the last few days. He usually comes right for Cheltenham, so hopefully he’ll do so again, but I just wish he was in a bit better form.

Form profile

A 174-rated chaser, he was the highly-impressive winner of the Ryanair Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in March and has won both his starts this season.

Trainer says

The Ryanair Chase looks to be the race for him. He’s in great shape. He’d be the first one that comes to mind for me as the banker for us and I’d be very disappointed if he doesn’t run a really good race.

Form profile

A 135-rated hurdler, she has won both her starts since joining Willie Mullins including a Grade 3 mares’ novice hurdle at Fairyhouse in January.

Trainer says

Allegorie De Vassy looks a really good mare. She is a big, strong mare who will jump fences down the line. We’ll look to the Mares’ Novices' for her.

Form profile

A 160-rated hurdler, he was unbeaten in four starts over hurdles last season including the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

Trainer says

We decided a while ago to send him straight to the Champion Hurdle without a prep run. I sent him away for a gallop last week and I was very pleased with him. He galloped very well. I think we have a good record when we bring horses to Cheltenham without a previous run, with Quevega being the obvious one. The lack of a run isn’t something that will worry me with him. It will be a big challenge for any horse to take on Honeysuckle, she’s a real machine and Rachael can put her wherever she wants.

Form profile

A 157-rated chaser, he is unbeaten in three starts over fences including the Irish Arkle Novice Chase at the Dublin Racing Festival.

Trainer says

Blue Lord has done everything right and will go for the Arkle Challenge Trophy. He jumps well and is a straightforward horse. He looks to have a big chance on form and he’s in great order at home.

Form profile

A winning point-to-pointer, she has won a bumper and a maiden hurdle. She most recently finished second in a Grade 3 mares’ novice hurdle at Fairyhouse.

Trainer says

Brandy Love was second to Allegorie De Vassy at Fairyhouse after hanging and jumping badly left. It sort of surprised us on the day, but afterwards we looked back and she did something similar in her point-to-point and her bumper. She’s going to be going left-handed at Cheltenham, which means most observers would say she has the beating of Allegorie De Vassy, who she’ll be 5lb better off with too. It’s going to be a good race!

Form profile

A 176-rated chaser, he has won six Grade 1 races for Mullins including the Dublin Chase at the Dublin Racing Festival last time.

Trainer says

I think the world of Chacun Pour Soi and the Queen Mother Champion Chase is his aim. A lot of people are saying that he’s not able to face the hill at Cheltenham, but he’s a horse I’d love to see getting a fair crack of the whip over there. I don’t think we’ve got that with him yet. Maybe he’s a horse that runs better when he’s a bit fresher, so we might look at that in how we train him to take account of what the travel might take out of it. People have said maybe we should fly him over, but I think that brings a whole other set of unknowns into it, as we don’t know how he’d take the flying. I think he’ll be fine with the usual travel routine on the ferry. We used to fly them over to Cheltenham and a lot of the Irish horses did at one stage, but we didn’t find much advantage in it and it cost a lot. The last time we fly anything over was around 2000 or 2002. Ferries and roads have improved a lot and we think it works well.

Form profile

A 152-rated hurdler, she won the Dawn Run Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in 2020 and finished a head second in the Mares’ Hurdle back at that meeting last year. She is unbeaten in two starts over fences this season.

Trainer says

The Mares’ Chase is her race and she has good form around Cheltenham. She worked well yesterday at the Curragh and she jumped some hurdles and some fences, so we’re very happy. She has a small setback three weeks ago and yesterday was about us seeing how she was and she jumped everything fine, so we’re very pleased with her.

Form profile

Made a winning racecourse debut in a mares’ maiden hurdle at Clonmel in January.

Trainer says

Dinoblue looked very good in heavy ground at Clonmel last month. I worked her the other morning for the first time since and she worked very, very well. I’m looking forward to running her in the Mares’ Novices' Hurdle.

Form profile

Unbeaten in two starts in bumpers and two starts over hurdles including a wide-margin victory in the Moscow Flyer Novices’ Hurdle at Punchestown last time.

Trainer says

Dysart Dynamo was very free the last day in front, but I think Paul has said to me on more than one occasion that when he settles behind a horse, he’s fine. I think the decision between the Supreme Novices' and the Ballymore will be left until late on.

Form profile

Made a winning hurdling debut in a maiden at Tramore in January.

Trainer says

El Fabiolo was very impressive at Tramore, which is our trial track for Cheltenham! I think the form has worked out well too. He got a little cut prior to the Dublin Racing Festival, so we withdrew him. I think his form stacks up and he could run at Cheltenham. You’d probably automatically say he’s a Supreme Novices' horse, but maybe we could change and ride him differently in the Ballymore. He’s got plenty of speed. If Paul is happy that he can settle him, that will be the key, then we could go for the Ballymore, but we’ll see.

Form profile

A 154-rated chaser, she has won five of her starts over fences and finished a close second in the Mares’ Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in March.

Trainer says

Elimay is going to the Mares’ Chase. We put cheekpieces on her last time and she jumped really well in those. She might stick with those and we might ride her more prominently, we’ll see. She’s in good form.

Form profile

A 175-rated chaser, he has won five of his six starts over fences, losing his unbeaten record to Shishkin in an epic renewal of the Clarence House Chase at Ascot in January.

Trainer says

Energumene ran a terrific race in the Clarence House Chase. It was a great day to be racing. That run told us that he isn’t far off where Shishkin is. It will be hard to turn that form around, but we can change things a little bit and hope to turn it around. I haven’t asked Paul who he’s riding yet but I’d be a Chacun Pour Soi fan. I don’t know what way he’s leaning, it’s going to be hard to turn around the Shishkin form with Energumene, so maybe he should play the other card if we can get him there in the order I want to get him there. It will be up to Paul.

Form profile

Unbeaten in two starts in bumpers, he created a particularly good impression when winning the Goffs Future Stars Bumper at the Dublin Racing Festival.

Trainer says

He’s done everything right on the track. From what I’ve seen at home and on the racetrack, he looks to be the one to beat in the Champion Bumper. I got him ready to run last season and he did a bit of work here that said to me “wow, this fella could be special”, but then he got jarred up and I left him off for the season. My view was that if I could get him back to what he showed that day, we’d be in business, so I’ve trained him with kid gloves this season to try and get him back to that. He was very good on his debut and what he did in the final furlong of his latest start looked exceptional. We have a very nice team of bumper horses and you don’t really know until you test them, but he has looked very good.

Form profile

Ran well without winning in three starts over hurdles when trained in France.

Trainer says

He’s a really interesting horse. His form in France is good and he has done some very good work since joining us. When we saw his handicap mark, we decided to aim him straight for the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle. He has jumped plenty of Irish-style hurdles here and we are very pleased with him.

Form profile

A 164-rated chaser, he is unbeaten in two starts over fences including the Ladbrokes Novice Chase at the Dublin Racing Festival.

Trainer says

He was so good on his chasing debut, but I think Paul learned a lot about him on his second starts over fences. He’s in the Turners Novices' Chase and the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase. He could go in either and I will chat to Paul before making a final decision, but I’d be happy to go for the Turners and that’s what I’m favouring at the minute. I think the way to do it is to look at the best race for the horse rather than the calibre of the opponent and I’m thinking our man may be better off over that trip.

Form profile

The winner of three of his four starts in bumpers for Mullins including a Grade 2 at the Dublin Racing Festival and a Grade 1 bumper at the Punchestown Festival, he made it third-time lucky over hurdles when winning a maiden at Punchestown in January.

Trainer says

You’d think that a horse that was second in the Champion Bumper would be one for longer trips over hurdles, but I think we’ll keep him to two miles for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.

Form profile

A 165-rated hurdler, he retuned from almost 18 months off to win the Champion Stayers Hurdle at the Punchestown Festival in April and added the Christmas Hurdle at Leopardstown to his tally in December.

Trainer says

He goes for the Stayers’ Hurdle. It was probably my fault that he was beaten at Gowran. I fell into the trap of going for it after giving him a break after such a hard race after Christmas. I thought he would be fit enough and sent him there on a wing and a prayer thinking it would be fine, but it didn’t work out so I’m going to put a line through that run. If he gets there in the right order and gets through the start, he’d have a good chance I think. I’d love to go chasing with him but every time I do he seems to hurt his back or get a niggle. He is a lot easier to keep right over hurdles.

Form profile

A 143-rated hurdler, he has won two of his three starts over hurdles including the Nathaniel Lacy & Partners Novice Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival.

Trainer says

I thought Danny gave Minella Cocooner a terrific ride to win at Leopardstown last time and I was really impressed with how he jumped. Danny settled him and got breathers into him. He’s in the Ballymore and the Albert Bartlett, but his style of racing could make the Albert Bartlett a bit tough for him. I haven’t made my mind up on him yet, you would think that the Ballymore would be the race for him though, looking at his style of running, jumping and racing. He takes a lot out of himself when racing so we’ll see where we go with him.

Form profile

Made an impressive winning debut in a bumper at Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting.

Trainer says

Redemption Day is a very good bumper horse. Patrick was very impressed with him at Leopardstown. He missed the Dublin Racing Festival, so he’ll go there without another race. Whatever happens, he’s a horse for the future. You have to be impressed with the amount of speed he showed at Leopardstown at Christmas.

Form profile

A 152-rated chaser, he made a winning chasing debut at Fairyhouse prior to finishing third in the Irish Arkle Novice Chase at the Dublin Racing Festival.

Trainer says

He was out in the lot before you guys arrived, but he’s in good shape and is on track for Cheltenham. He stuck at it very well in the Irish Arkle and he should come forward again from that.

Form profile

The winner of the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival last March, he has won both his starts over hurdles this season including the Tattersalls Ireland Novice Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival.

Trainer says

He had done everything right all his life until his most recent run. We made the running with him, which I don’t think suited him. I’ve no doubt that, whatever race he runs in, getting a lead will be a help to him. Even if he doesn’t get a lead, I think the horse will know better next time as he should learn from Leopardstown. Really, he could run in either the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle or the Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle. You could toss a coin to make the decision and not be upset either way. That’s the sort of ability I hope he has. We’ll make that decision much closer to the time.

Form profile

A 153-rated chaser, he is unbeaten in two starts over fences including a Grade 3 novice chase at Naas in January.

Trainer says

He’s going for the three-mile-sixer (National Hunt Chase). Before he even jumped a fence we thought he was a National Hunt Chase type of horse. His method of jumping is much better than what he showed at Navan. In time I think he’ll come back and win over three miles and shorter because he’s such a good jumper. Really, you’d rather a more settled jumper than him for a race like this, so it’ll be up to Patrick to settle him. He won’t switch races in my book. We’ve had him mapped out for this.

Form profile

A 167-rated chaser, he won the King George VI Chase at Kempton in December.

Trainer says

Tornado Flyer goes for the Gold Cup and once again Danny was fantastic on him at Kempton. I think a similar type of performance to Kempton in the Gold Cup would put him right there. The extra two-and-a-half furlongs could be an advantage to him. I’ve seen a few people say that the extra distance may not help, but I think it might. If it is, that puts him right in there. At Kempton things fell into his lap a little bit and softer ground certainly wouldn’t stop him. It might favour him, but on his pedigree he’d go on better ground too. He’ll go on either ground and I’m not concerned, stamina doesn’t seem to be a problem and he jumps well enough. He’s a player, I think.

Form profile

A 145-rated hurdler, he made it second-time lucky over hurdles when winning the Spring Juvenile Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival.

Trainer says

He did everything nicely the last day at Leopardstown. He’s going to be a major player in the Triumph and everything has gone well since and I’m very happy with him. To be honest, I didn’t want to be go down this route at all, I wanted to keep him as a novice for next year, so I hadn’t really been training him hard for his maiden hurdle. He obviously met a good one on the first day in Pied Piper and that encouraged us to go straight into a Grade 1 from there and he did what he did there. For a lot of horses that run in it, the Triumph Hurdle is their Derby, but I have bigger plans for this fella.