2 weeks Ago By Irishexaminer.com
Life at the top of the sporting world tends to be fleeting. All the vital cogs that must work in unison to make that ascent to the apex tend to wear over time and when one fails to operate to its full potential, the load on the remainder inevitably leads to a collapse of the machine. The period on top depends on the chief engineer, the one overseeing operations, and in Willie Mullins, the Closutton team has a man who has steered his team to heights never previously achieved in National Hunt racing, and one who, at 68, remains as determined as ever to remain there.
So, what is it that continues to drive the perennial champion trainer in Ireland, who last season added the British title to a burgeoning list of achievements? “First and foremost, I’ve got to earn a living,” he explains, pragmatically. “And then there’s the maintenance on this place. “I was always very competitive and when you set out you want to be the best you can.
Okay, now we’re there, but this place doesn’t have private backers – it’s me, Jackie, and Patrick. That’s it, and the place has got to earn its keep. The maintenance on the gallop every year costs a huge amount.
You’ve got to win it to pay for the upkeep. “Of course, I still have the desire to train good horses, and I’m in the position that we have fabulous owners that anyone would love to have. When you’re training for those, you have access to good horses, you hope.
“People always assume we’ll have ten or 12 Grade One horses here but you’re always afraid that if one or two of them go down, where will the next one come from. That’s my worry. “But I couldn’t see the point in playing something unless you were going to do your best at it,” he adds, perhaps touching on the real motivation, the one that goes beyond the maintenance of the yard.
“I was always fascinated that a champion trainer, when I was growing up, they were always older, in the second-half of their life, whereas in England everyone wants to make someone a champion trainer at 32 or three. I only got my licence at 30, but then I probably came into it later. “It’s different if someone knows they want to be a trainer from the time they’re 21, but most guys come into it wanting to be jockeys and then morph into being a trainer so then you’re only going to be better at your job later in life.
“I think it’s huge if you have the appetite to keep at it because of all the knowledge you’ve learned over the years. Experience is huge in this game.” Mullins, of course, has always had the pedigree to be the champion he has become, but even he is a little surprised at what he picked up from his late father, Paddy, a Classic winner on the Flat and six-time champion National Hunt trainer.
“It’s something which I didn’t think I learned: patience. I’m surprised with the patience I have with horses, and probably frustrate a lot of owners. But that’s why I think I’m so lucky with the owners I have, that they buy into it and wait.
That’s a huge thing in a horse’s life, for someone to wait for the horse to come along, rather than forcing it.” That patience has led Mullins and his team to title after title, Grade One after Grade One, something which, perhaps, other sports managers could learn from. Taking a left-field look, Mullins is asked if he could offer any advice to Pep Guardiola as his Manchester City team struggles to maintain its position atop the football world.
“I wouldn’t dream of telling him what to do,” he replies. “I wouldn’t know enough about that sport, but meet me on a barstool at the Lord Bagenal ..
. Joking aside, were a threat to his team’s superiority to arise, he knows just how he would approach it. “First thing, if that was a training yard, I’d say, ‘is that a virus?’ Have they got some underlying problem? “To me, it’s all about the health of your horses.
If you can keep them healthy then, if they’re good enough, they’ll win. “I’m sure all those guys are blood tested but when a team is not performing, normally we’d have the luxury of shutting down. That’s what a racehorse trainer would do.
We’d shut down for two or three weeks and try to get back on track. I didn’t watch any of those Manchester City matches, but health is the first thing I’d be thinking about. “The other thing is your team around you: you don’t want to upset them.
You don’t want to upset your jockeys. You want them thinking they’re the best all the time. “If you’re worried about some ride that he gave a horse at the weekend, different jockeys take it in different ways, and you have to be very careful how you get your feelings around.
“Sometimes you’re as well off to let is pass. The jockey himself knows maybe he didn’t give it the best ride, or he could have had a different option. It’s all about keeping people’s heads right, that they’re on your team, not against you.
“The expression in football is that you lose the dressing room. You’ve got to keep people on side. Not everyone is going to do it right, and I certainly don’t do it right all the time.
” Seventeen consecutive Irish championships - 18 in total - might suggest otherwise. Willie Mullins on..
. National Hunt prize-money: “We’re still racing for Covid money, which I find disappointing. We’ve been promised a rise in money, we’ve gone to 48-hour decs, and we have racing now before we come out of second mass on a Sunday.
Half-eleven racing twice this week, and 35 and 40 minutes between races, which I don’t think is good for people. I find it a trial. “They tell us it is all about media, and that if we do what they say, we’ll have more money, but we’re not seeing it in the jump game.
It’s disappointing and hopefully we will get it back, but there are a lot more issues than what racing is going to get out of a new government." Christmas at Closutton: “We’re in the entertainment business, and also agriculture, and we have to look after our animals. Christmas Day is usually great fun.
We get a lot of ex-staff coming in to ride out, and friends of ours who want to come in and ride out. We have people arriving in Santa suits, and it’s usually a bit of fun. We have to get all the runners out for the week, which is a lot of horses.
If it’s a nice morning, it’s great fun, but if it’s wet, we just try to get the horses in and everyone away by 11 or 12 o’clock." “At times like Christmas, you might say, ‘feck it, I’d love to be doing what the other guys are doing, going downtown enjoying Christmas for the week or 10 days over the New Year period, not working,’ but it balances out in our favour over the whole year. We’re blessed to be in racing.
People who are in it love it. If you’re not that way inclined, that’s different, but we know it’s a seven-day a week job.” Galopin Des Champs: “He ran a fantastic race in the John Durkan.
We'll probably stick to the usual route and go for the Savills at Christmas and then on to the Irish Gold Cup and back to Cheltenham.” Mystical Power: “He’ll go to Newcastle this weekend. I believe they’re watering the ground, which we wouldn’t want, but he’ll go on the ground and is fit and well.
I thought he’d be 10 or 12lbs out on ratings but the way it has worked out, he’s 2lbs well-in with Sir Gino. It will be a very informative race. I had thought about running him over fences – he is a hell of a jumper over a fence.
If this hurdling lark doesn’t go well for him, he can go novice chasing – probably next year, at this stage. Maybe he could be a Gold Cup horse.” Fact To File: “He ran a fantastic race the other day.
He jumped well and learned an awful lot. It was tough racing because he was being marked the whole time, and it can rattle a horse to get a bump like he got turning for home. He jumped the last two adequately and then raced on when the other horse came to him.
That will bring him on hugely.”.
