Willie Mullins

Flemington beckons for Rich Ricci's Vauban (Fr) (Galiway {GB}) after the classy stayer made light of the switch to 12 furlongs in Monday's G3 Ballyroan S. at Naas. A winner of the Listed Prix Frederic de Lagrange before turning into a high-class hurdler, the five-year-old had marked his return to the Flat with an authoritative success from the front in Royal Ascot's Copper Horse H. and took the move to Pattern company in his stride here. Always comfortable tracking this faster early tempo in third, the 4-6 favourite was sent...

Hurricane Fly (Ire), Un De Sceaux (Fr), Vautour (Fr) and Faugheen (Ire). You name them, Harold Kirk has bought them. But did the leading bloodstock agent snap up the next jumps star to join Ireland's dominant champion National Hunt handler Willie Mullins? Ethical Diamond (Ire) (Awtaad {Ire}) was the only reason that Kirk travelled to the Tattersalls July Sale this week and he wasn't leaving without a horse he spoke of as being a future Melbourne Cup prospect.  That is the esteem the leading judge held Michael O'Meara's recent Limerick...

It was the French sires who dominated on day two of the Goffs Arkle Sale with Willie Mullins and Harold Kirk going to €250,000 to secure a Galiway (GB) gelding [King Rasko Grey (Fr)] from Treannahow Stables. That was followed by a Doctor Dino (Fr) gelding that was snapped up by Gordon Elliott for €185,000 from Altenbach Bloodstock and a Jeu St Eloi (Fr) gelding to Paul Nicholls and Tom Malone for €175,000.  Galiway, the sire of dual Group 1 winner Sealiway (Fr), has made huge strides as a National...

Six Irish National Hunt champions, including Willie Mullins, will be presented with their end-of-season awards at Punchestown on Saturday. Charlie McConalogue, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, will be on hand at the course to distribute the honours. Trainer Willie Mullins was named the Irish NH Champion Trainer for the 17th time. He saddled his 4,000th career winner in January and sets a new record for the number of winners in a NH season having surpassed his previous best of 212, set in the 2017/2018 season. The trainer of...

Multiple black-type performer Dolcita (Fr) (Saint Des Saints {Fr}) is one of a dozen initial entries comprising the Goffs Punchestown Sale catalogue, which will be online on Monday. Slated for the winner's enclosure after the last race at the course on Thursday, Apr. 27, the sale will offer the aforementioned Willie Mullins-trained 8-year-old mare as a breeding prospect, who was fourth in the Irish Grand National in her most recent start, as well as nine 4-year-olds that have won or placed second in point-to-points or National Hunt Flat races, and...

CHELTENHAM, UK--Resplendent in bright green on St Patrick's Day, Audrey Truly clasped the Cheltenham Gold Cup as she chatted with Princess Anne while her face bore a look of disbelief. The owner could be forgiven if the enormity of the relatively smooth victory of her 7-year-old Galopin Des Champs (Fr) (Timos {Ger}) in jump racing's most prestigious race was yet to sink in.  Exactly a year ago the sleek dark brown gelding appeared to be about to back up his first Cheltenham success in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys' Hurdle...

A new four-part series of Laochra Na Rásaíochta, featuring some of Ireland's greatest National Hunt racehorses, will air for four consecutive Wednesdays at 8 p.m. beginning on Wednesday, Mar. 8, TG4 and Touchline Media announced on Tuesday. The opening episode tells the stories of Willie Mullins's three Champion Hurdle heroes--Hurricane Fly (Ire), Faugheen (Ire) and Annie Power (Ire)--and also features a segment on Quevega (Fr), the record six-time winner at the Cheltenham Festival. Contributors include Willie Mullins, Paul Townend, Ruby Walsh, David Casey, Gail Carlisle, Ted Walsh and Noel Meade....

Ian Kellit, the joint-breeder of Lossiemouth (Fr), a short-priced Triumph Hurdle favourite who is expected to extend her unbeaten record to four for Willie Mullins and Paul Townend at the Dublin Racing Festival on Saturday, has revealed that he was totally unaware that a jumps filly could be so valuable before the gorgeous grey came along.  Lossiemouth bolted up in the Prix Geographie Hurdle at Auteuil for Yannick Fouin on debut, at which time she was part-owned by Kellit, the Scottish native who has resided in France for over 30...

Is it just me or should France be known as the bloodstock land of opportunity? This is the country that saw Wootton Bassett (GB) and Walk In The Park (Ire) pull themselves up by the bootstraps after entering the stud book at relatively modest sums. There are few serious racing nations that provide as much of a chance for a stallion to flourish than France does. Take Kauto Star (Fr), the greatest staying chaser of the modern era, as an example. He hailed from the largely unheralded Village Star (Fr)...

No trainer in Ireland has farmed France for top-class talent quite like Willie Mullins has in recent times. Superstars Hurricane Fly (Ire), Douvan (Fr), Un De Sceaux (Fr), Vroum Vroum Mag (Fr) and Benie Des Dieux (Fr) are all a product of that hugely successful resource.  It seems as though not one week goes by where Mullins fails to unleash a leading French prospect, which was evident at Clonmel on Tuesday when Ireland's dominant National Hunt trainer sent out Night And Day (GB) and Gaelic Warrior (Ger) to record emphatic...

He burst onto the Flat scene by training nine winners in his debut season followed by 11 in 2018, but Richard O'Brien has described the sale of three expensive bumper winners and winners-in-waiting throughout the past 12 months as "hugely important" in his bid to balance the books.  It all started with Impulsive Dancer (Ire) (Dragon Pulse {Ire}). A horse who was almost rehomed as a riding horse after finishing tailed off in a piece of work on the Curragh, Impulsive Dancer showed his true colours on testing ground, which...

First job in the Thoroughbred industry? Summer job as a stud groom at Highland Farm in Paris, Kentucky, that was managed by Peter Kirwan in 1999. Everything looked big and new at the time especially the Clydesdales that were kept on the farm not far from the Thoroughbreds! Biggest influence on your career? My friends Benoit Jeffroy and Gabriel Leenders. Unlike me the two of them are born and raised in this game and they have been keen to share their knowledge and experience with me since I decided to...