The royal procession is part of Royal Ascot, the world’s most famous galloping meeting, like top hats and big hats. The carriage parade was led by King Charles for the first time last year. Willie Mullins sat in one of the four-horse landau with his wife Jackie – a sign of the special esteem that the Irish trainer enjoys.
The now 67-year-old has been dominating obstacle sports in particular for years, and last weekend he achieved another milestone: Mullins became champion trainer in England for the first time, and in his native Ireland he is close to his 18th title; the season ends on Saturday in Punchestown. Vincent O’Brien last managed to become obstacle champion on both sides of the Irish Sea 70 years ago.
Shocking dominance from Mullins
“Vincent was a legend of legends in racing,” Mullins said. “I couldn’t even dream of having my name next to him.” He won the title with a tremendous final spurt. Although he “only” won 28 races in England – his pursuer Dan Skelton had 120 winners – Mullins won the “big points”. The preliminary decision was made by success in the Grand National with I Am Maximus, which alone was worth half a million pounds.
The championship is decided based on prize money won, so Mullins earned around 3.3 million pounds (almost 3.9 million euros), almost 400,000 more than Skelton. In Ireland, his horses had won 251 races and 6.3 million euros by midweek. “It’s a team effort,” Mullins emphasizes. “How should I put it – we have our own academy. They develop over the years, know how everything works and make my job very easy for me.”
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With more than 200 horses in his care, that’s certainly an understatement. Since 1988 he has been training in Closutton in County Carlow, south of Dublin. He followed his father Paddy Mullins, who himself trained Thoroughbreds for five decades. “He was my most important teacher,” says the former amateur jockey.
Wife Jackie was a good rider, son Patrick also gets into the saddle as an amateur and is an assistant trainer to his father. Mullins’ dominance, particularly in the big races, is now almost frightening. The Cheltenham Festival, Europe’s most important steeplechase meeting, is firmly in his hands. This year he won nine of the 28 races and now has 103 festival victories.
But Mullins doesn’t just score points from the jumps. He also specifically brings horses to the start in flat races, although this is very rare in Germany. In 2019 he came second in the Oleander race in Berlin-Hoppegarten with Thomas Hobson owned by the American investment banker Rich Ricci, who is one of Mullins’ most important owners. Last year they won with Vauban at the Royal Ascot, which was the ninth triumph for the exceptional Irish trainer at the royal racecourse.
