Willie Mullins sets incredible Cheltenham record despite Gold Cup disappointment
Galopin Des Champs didn't do the business on Friday to make it a hat-trick of Gold Cup successes, but nevertheless it was a very successful Cheltenham Festival for Willie Mullins
by Kit Mann · The MirrorWillie Mullins was crowned leading trainer at the Cheltenham Festival for an incredible 12th time - despite Galopin Des Champs' Gold Cup disappointment.
Remarkably, it's the seventh year in succession that Mullins has been leading trainer at the four-day meeting.
Mullins began the meeting on Tuesday by taking the opening Supreme Novices’ Hurdle with Kopeck Des Bordes. Lossiemouth won the Mares’ Hurdle having sidestepped the Champion Hurdle to give him and Paul Townend two on the first afternoon and it was an advantage he was never to relinquish.
On Wednesday Jimmy Du Seuil lifted the Coral Cup under Danny Mullins, Sean O’Keeffe was on the outsider Lecky Watson in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase, while Jody Townend secured a first Festival winner on Bambino Fever in the Champion Bumper.
Only one winner went his way on Thursday, but it was perhaps the most impressive of the week as Fact To File landed the Ryanair Chase for Mark Walsh.
Not even Mullins expected 100-1 shot Poniros to start the last day as he did in the Triumph Hurdle, before Kargese proved to be the handicap snip many expected in the County Hurdle to give Townend a third of the week.
Walsh added Dinoblue to his roll of honour in the Mares’ Chase, before Jasmin De Vaux rediscovered his form from last year’s Champion Bumper to win the Albert Bartlett, another for Townend, as Mullins equalled his own record haul of 10 for the four days.
It was then the one Mullins had been waiting for, but try as he might the Townend-ridden Galopin Des Champs was denied by Inothewayurthinkin and Walsh in his bid to become just the fifth horse in history to win three Gold Cups.
Mullins, who became the first trainer to pass a century at the Festival last year, said: “We really enjoy having winners here and it’s great to train winners for a range of different owners.
“For me I enjoy that it gets spread out and it’s not just one owner and that’s the fun of it. I’m training winners here for people who could never have dreamed of having winners here and I remember being that soldier here once as well.
“It’s a huge team operation and it’s gone astronomical. No one would ever have dreamt someone would have that many horses to run at a Festival like this, but it’s something we concentrate on and it’s paying off for us.
“We’ll enjoy it why we can and things in sport have a habit of going up and down, but we’ll see how we go and keep enjoying the winners when they come.”
Townend, meanwhile, was the leading rider of the meeting, claiming four successes to tie with Mark Walsh but take the title on accumulated placings.
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