Willie Mullins will celebrate another landmark in his illustrious training career on Friday evening when he saddles his first runner for Charles and Camilla, Britain’s king and queen, at Leopardstown.
Reaching High will make his debut for the Closutton handler in the Leopardstown Lady Riders Handicap that concludes the action at the Dublin track, with the reigning British and Irish champion delighted to have been added to the royal roster of trainers.
Mr Mullins told The Irish Field: “We were introduced to King Charles and Queen Camilla at Royal Ascot last year. The next thing, we got a phone call asking if we would take a horse for them. I said I would be delighted and Reaching High arrived here shortly afterwards.”
Mr Mullins has won the Ascot Stakes four times in the past, including in 2012 with Simenon, who a year later was denied by Queen Elizabeth II’s Gold Cup winner Estimate – who is the dam of Reaching High – in the Ascot feature.
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Speaking on RTÉ Radio 1’s Morning Ireland, jockey and assistant trainer Patrick Mullins outlined how his father Willie came to terms with Britain’s royal couple to train Reaching High.
“My mother and father, Willie and Jackie, were involved in the royal procession at Royal Ascot and obviously they got to meet the king and queen through that. I think they hit it off quite well and a few months later then, we got contacted to ask whether we would be interested in taking Reaching High and of course we said yes, we’d be delighted,” he said.
“Camilla is a huge fan of racing and I think she’s been over to visit several studs and yards in Ireland before.
“But King Charles did ride at the Cheltenham Festival when he was a prince – I think himself and Ted Walsh might have ended up in the back of a fence together – that was what I was told anyway.”
Mr Mullins said Friday would be revelatory in terms of paving a pathway towards brighter lights for Reaching High in the future.
“The plan is to see if we can get to Royal Ascot and this run will tell us a lot about him,” he said. – Additional reporting by PA
