Willie Mullins is planning to “celebrate long and hard” after becoming the first Irish-based trainer since the great Vincent O’Brien to lift the UK trainers’ championship.
Ruby Walsh described Willie Mullins as “somebody people should aspire to be” after the trainer emulated the great Vincent O’Brien by winning the UK trainers’ championship.
Seven days on from winning the Scottish National in a photo finish, Willie and Danny Mullins repeated the trick as Minella Cocooner was delivered right on the line to catch long-time leader Annual Invictus in the bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown.
Kyprios readily landed prohibitive odds in the SBK Vintage Crop Stakes at Navan this afternoon and looks set to play a big part in all the top staying races this year.
Ezeliya took the step up to Group 3 company in her stride when making a successful seasonal debut in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Salsabil Stakes at Navan.
My Racing StorySponsored By Tote
I'm from a place called Eadestown, just outside Naas, beside Punchestown racecourse. I had a pony when I was younger at home and I was kind of mad for a bit of speed! I got into Michael Halford's when I was 12 or 13. I rode out there on my school holidays and weekends for five years before I left school. There were some brilliant lads in Michael Halford's at the time like Sean Corby, who rode as an apprentice for a while, Shane Foley was stable jockey and Conor Hoban was apprentice there. You can see from Michael Halford's track record, he had some brilliant apprentices over the years including Gary Carroll. It was a great place to learn and I learned plenty. I was still very weak and green and I wasn't quite sure whether I was going to be good enough to be a jockey but, in fairness, it was the route for me. I had a crack at college in Carlow, but I didn't enjoy that - I only lasted about three weeks! I missed the horses a lot.
Weather has always been the number one topic of conversation in Ireland which is most odd considering we don’t actually get extreme weather events like other countries and for the most part we don’t even have seasons.
Up to last Saturday it had rained almost every day since July, but that hasn’t stopped our population discussing the weather incessantly. Weddings, funerals, business meetings, casual encounters in the street, every conversation starter is invariably about the weather.
