As the dust settles on the 2023 Punchestown festival it is worth looking at the incredible stats of Willie Mullins over the 5 days and asking, with all due respect and admiration, is he becoming just too dominant?
There were a total of 40 races (each with prize money down to 6th place) run over the 5 days of the festival with win and place prize money totalling €3,342,585. Of the 91 Mullins runners, a staggering 64 (70%) claimed some sort of prize money with the break down as follows:
1st place - 17
2nd place - 13
3rd place - 13
4th place - 9
5th place - 6
6th place - 6
Mullins' runners took 9 of the 12 grade 1 races (including 3 of the 4 "Championship" races worth €180,000 to the winner - only Galopin Des Champs missed out) and gained total win and place prize money of €1,865,272. This represents some 55.8% of the total prize money on offer.
The owners of these horse read like a "Who's Who" of horse owners - Rich Ricci, Joe Donnelly, Munir & Soude, Tony Bloom, Cheveley Park, JP McManus and once again Gigginstown Stud (happily they also include the Hammer and Trowel syndicate that own Facile Vega). These are largely serious players with deep pockets who invariably send their best horses to Mullins (odd exceptions being sent to Nicky Henderson by JP and Donnelly in particular).
Of course much of this success is down to the master himself but it is clearly a huge team operation throughout the value chain going right the way back to scouting and purchasing good young horses for their wealthy patrons. Compare the successful Punchestown week for Mullins to that of his biggest rivals - Henry De Bromhead didn't have a single winner all week whilst Gordon Elliott managed to bookend the entire meeting, winning the very first race on Tuesday with Shecouldbeanything and the last on Saturday with Stuzzikini but with 45 losers between the two.
Which begs the question: Is the utter dominance of Mullins in any way detrimental to Irish racing? Football can become boring with lack of competition - think of Bayern Munich's dominance in the Bundesliga or Juventus in Serie A (thankfully broken this season) - is there the risk of the same thing happening to NH racing? As long as the punters keep backing his winners they will be happy. Financially I think the other yards are generally well filled and there is good prize money to be had away from the big festivals. But racing is sport and if I am honest, the bloodless victories of Facile Vega, Energumene, Gaelic Warrior or El Fabiolo were, for me, nowhere near as exciting as the Gold Cup where Bravemansgame ran a craker, Galopin Des Champs went down fighting and Martin Brassil's Fastorslow once again confirmed that really good horses can get to the top the hard way via handicaps, rather than in small field Grade 1s. That certainly offers hope for the future
.
There were a total of 40 races (each with prize money down to 6th place) run over the 5 days of the festival with win and place prize money totalling €3,342,585. Of the 91 Mullins runners, a staggering 64 (70%) claimed some sort of prize money with the break down as follows:
1st place - 17
2nd place - 13
3rd place - 13
4th place - 9
5th place - 6
6th place - 6
Mullins' runners took 9 of the 12 grade 1 races (including 3 of the 4 "Championship" races worth €180,000 to the winner - only Galopin Des Champs missed out) and gained total win and place prize money of €1,865,272. This represents some 55.8% of the total prize money on offer.
The owners of these horse read like a "Who's Who" of horse owners - Rich Ricci, Joe Donnelly, Munir & Soude, Tony Bloom, Cheveley Park, JP McManus and once again Gigginstown Stud (happily they also include the Hammer and Trowel syndicate that own Facile Vega). These are largely serious players with deep pockets who invariably send their best horses to Mullins (odd exceptions being sent to Nicky Henderson by JP and Donnelly in particular).
Of course much of this success is down to the master himself but it is clearly a huge team operation throughout the value chain going right the way back to scouting and purchasing good young horses for their wealthy patrons. Compare the successful Punchestown week for Mullins to that of his biggest rivals - Henry De Bromhead didn't have a single winner all week whilst Gordon Elliott managed to bookend the entire meeting, winning the very first race on Tuesday with Shecouldbeanything and the last on Saturday with Stuzzikini but with 45 losers between the two.
Which begs the question: Is the utter dominance of Mullins in any way detrimental to Irish racing? Football can become boring with lack of competition - think of Bayern Munich's dominance in the Bundesliga or Juventus in Serie A (thankfully broken this season) - is there the risk of the same thing happening to NH racing? As long as the punters keep backing his winners they will be happy. Financially I think the other yards are generally well filled and there is good prize money to be had away from the big festivals. But racing is sport and if I am honest, the bloodless victories of Facile Vega, Energumene, Gaelic Warrior or El Fabiolo were, for me, nowhere near as exciting as the Gold Cup where Bravemansgame ran a craker, Galopin Des Champs went down fighting and Martin Brassil's Fastorslow once again confirmed that really good horses can get to the top the hard way via handicaps, rather than in small field Grade 1s. That certainly offers hope for the future
.
