Sean O’Keeffe gives his thoughts on Willie Mullins as we approach the Boylesports Irish Grand National today. There’s an insight from the respected jockey who has worked and rode for the champion for over four years.
Willie Mullins is never afraid to pitch his horses anywhere – he builds them up gradually and it works for him It’s not a done deal [the British Trainers title] but Aintree was unbelievable, to pick up all that prize money. [Rival trainer] Dan Skelton probably thought it would be his this year but after all the Grade 1s and then the National, that changed.
Mullins sent a big team to Ayr, a few of them didn’t get in the money but then the big race that he needed, he pulled out the first and second. Hopefully he can keep that going but he will need to keep picking it up because Skelton won’t back down for the remainder of the season.
It’s going to be exciting for the last couple of weeks now, right up to Sandown, and I am sure it’ll go right down to the wire there and add another dimension to the end of the season.
One thing he doesn’t do is rest on his laurels and to go to Aintree and train a 1-2-3 in the National and for Patrick to ride the winner for him just tops it all off, in the biggest handicap of the year, it’s amazing. It seemed to have more connection with Patrick winning. His interview after the race, it looked as though it was for sure.
I was second on Jump Allen for Willie at Ayr, we got a few quid there. I was a bit unlucky with the other two, Chosen Witness I think was going to run a big race but he made a mistake in the Scottish National at the fourth last and that knocked him right back out of the race.
It is something Willie is good at though, he has a team and he is not afraid to pitch them in there. It is his usual way, he builds the horses up through the early part of the season and they hit their peak at Christmas, the Spring Festivals, Cheltenham and on. It seems to work for him.
Everything Done to Perfection
Everything at his yard is done to perfection – that’s why his the greatest trainer of all time I have been riding for him for about four years now, the team of horses he has there and the work that is put in is massive. He has the operation and the people behind him, everything is done to perfection. Everybody knows their job there, there is a similar path each year, he sticks to that.
You have to be like that, at the top level, you have to keep looking forward to the next race and you can’t dwell too much on what’s happened, whether it is good or bad. There is another race half an hour later, the horses will run again, you have to keep moving forward and that’s what he does.
He is re-writing the record books every year. His team is amazing. The team of horses he has been able to build up, the owners too, over the years is unbelievable, I don’t think anyone ever could have thought he would have achieved this. Vincent O’Brien did it and I don’t think people thought it would be done again but to be right in the mix again this year is unbelievable.
The operation there is amazing. As Willie has said, he started out with just a few horses and built it up so the credit has to go all to him, it is not like he started out with all these horses he has built it up and I think people need to remember that as well. These big trainers don’t start out with the big operation, it’s hard work.
