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 .
Probably yes. It begins to make the whole thing boring. Can't blame Mullins. The programme has become thin and broad, with horses proclaimed as champions yet not running much or against each other.
The point here is the owners. If you buy a racehorse you want him in the best yard you can afford. If you can afford the best then that is where you send them. Why have the likes of Bloom, Munir/Suede and the Klassical Dream owners all ended up as customers of Willie. They should all really be patrons of Nicholls, Henderson, Tizzard etc. However, they want the best and that is Willie.
Does anyone know what percentage of Mullins horses he is directly involved in purchasing eg through Harold Kirk? What I mean is, for example Energumene - did Mullins / Kirk buy him and then get on the phone to Tony Bloom? How do these things work?
Found this article on Harold Kirk: https://www.thesun.ie/cheltenham-fe...willie-mullins-empire-in-exclusive-interview/
Was very disappointed to see what little ammunition Lieutenant Henderson, Mr Nicholls and Dan Skelton, to name but 3, fired at the meeting from this side of the Irish Sea. Competition is hardly going to thrive when such stellar stables send so few runners. Re Elliott at the meet he did target some of his better animals at Aintree (Gerri Colombe, Irish Point, Conflated, etc) so that may go some way to explaining why his winning numbers where somewhat lacking. The legend that is Sire Du Berlais did, of course, though do both meets.
Funny that people always talk about Cheltenham being the "be all and end all" of the NH season and the rest of the pattern being skewed by it. The problem is actually far worse than that - it is the Cheltenham-Aintree-Punchestown triumverate with a combined 37 Grade 1 races in the space of 46 days which just skews the whole NH season to a few weeks in the spring. What about canning all the Grade 1s at Aintree and make it a 2 day meeting with only handicaps, culminating in the biggest of them all? Would anyone actually miss the Aintree Hurdle or Bowl?
We’re all very aware of the problems ie. too many uncompetitive Group races; lack of good handicaps with attractive prize money; owner and trainer domination; Cheltenham’s obsessive monopoly; overprotected horses. However, what disappointed me most at Punchestown was the dire quality of supposed top hurdlers. State Man, the best in Ireland, is nothing more than a good handicapper, and there’s no exciting talent coming through. As usual the four year olds eg. Vauban don’t progress- likewise most French imports, and good Flat horses don’t go jumping any more. As this century progresses, the situation continues to deteriorate. As a footnote, if I owned Constitution Hill, I’d go chasing with him because (no disrespect to him) his hurdling opposition is the worst I have ever seen at the top level.
Totally, totally agree re that 37 Grade 1 races in the space of 46 days stat. As I've been saying for a few years now the period 2 Jan to the day before the Imperial Cup, in this Isle, sees a complete dearth of top quality NH action. You will get the odd highlight now and then, in this period, but overall it is completely lacking with a capital 'L'. Thankfully the emergence of the 'Dublin Racing Festival' has helped but referencing the point I made above again hardly any of the UK stables target this meet. Why, I say, why?!? The simple and obvious solution is surely to move some of those races contained within the 46 days to the period 2 Jan to the day before the Imperial Cup. I've no confidence in this happening, however...
Tam and Sir Barney I fully agree and the latest BHA tinkering will do nothing to improve the situation. It seems all sports governing bodies these days are purely looking to „maximize their revenue stream“ (yuk!!!) - football (matches live on TV every day), cricket (forever pushing more limited overs matches at the expense of the classic two innings apiece format, Formula 1 (no comment required) and of course horse racing too. Judging by the crowds at Punchestown though I don‘t think gate money is a key revenue stream.
