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Mary Hannigan: Willie Mullins has transformed National Hunt racing but still longs for Melbourne Cup

Ken Early on Spurs’ giddy euphoria; Paddy Morgan’s battle with Retinitis Pigmentosa; The weekend’s GAA and rugby reports

Willie Mullins, trainer of Melbourne Cup favourite Vauban, during a preview event ahead of the race. Photograph: Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images

Mary Hannigan's face
Mary Hannigan
Mon Nov 6 2023 - 10:18

Twenty years ago, Willie Mullins had his first crack at the Melbourne Cup, but it wasn’t a memorable debut, Holy Orders finishing 17th in the 23-runner field. Ruby Walsh told him that the expedition had been a “disaster”. “Maybe,” the trainer replied, “but we learned a lot.” So, he kept coming back when he believed he had a horse good enough to challenge for one of racing’s biggest prizes. He’s come close, but, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, he might just have his biggest chance yet, Vauban, one of two runners he has in the race, is the short-priced favourite. But if he wins, writes Denis Walsh, “it won’t be reported as a sensation. In Mullins’ career the threshold for sensation has shifted so many times in the last 10 years that it is hard to know what it would take to make our jaws drop now”. Brian O’Connor recalls Mullins taking “a busman’s holiday” to Australia in 1993 to witness firsthand Dermot Weld’s pioneering victory with Vintage Crop in the race. “Since then, Mullins has transformed National Hunt racing with his achievements, yet still describes the Melbourne Cup as his biggest target.”

Having grown up in Melbourne, you’d imagine Ange Postecoglou is more than familiar with the “race that stops a nation”. These days, he’s busy trying to transform Spurs from a bunch of also-rans into title-chasing thoroughbreds. So far, so good. “They have made their best start to a campaign since the double-winning season of 1960-61,” writes Ken Early. “The club is alive with a giddy euphoria.” Tonight they take on Chelsea, managed by their former gaffer Mauricio Pochettino.

In Gaelic games, Seán Moran was in Cullen Park to see Kilmacud Crokes’ footballers swat aside Éire Óg in their Leinster quarter-final, while Denis saw Ballygunner do much the same to Sarsfields in the Munster hurling championship. We have more reports from around the country, it proving to be a successful weekend for East Kerry, Corofin, Kilcoo and Newcastle West, amongst others.

In rugby, Leinster didn’t quite swat away Edinburgh at the RDS, but they got there in the end, even if “aspects of the performance were substandard”. Reinforcements are on their way, though, John O’Sullivan hearing Leo Cullen confirm that Leinster’s World Cup contingent “will start to be reintegrated to the team beginning with next Sunday’s trip to Rodney Parade to take on the Dragons”. The same Dragons were no match for Munster in Cork on Saturday, Graham Rowntree’s side helping themselves to seven tries in a 45-14 victory. And Connacht got the better of Ulster in the URC despite trailing by 3-20 at half-time.

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Over in Florida, meanwhile, Padraig Harrington continues to age like the finest of wines, picking up his sixth win on the PGA’s over-50s circuit with a seven-stroke triumph at the TimberTech Championship at Boca Raton.

Paddy Morgan is a handy golfer too, the high point of his career coming at the 2016 US Open Blind Golf Championship when he finished second. Morgan talks to Malachy Clerkin about the challenges he has faced along the way, the chief one being Retinitis Pigmentosa, a rare genetic disorder that has slowly robbed him of his vision since his early teens.

TV Watch: Spurs are flying under Ange Postecoglou, a very expensively assembled Chelsea not so much under Mauricio Pochettino. The London sides square up tonight in the Premier League (Sky, kick-off 8pm), Pochettino returning to the scene of his first English job. And at the same time, Against the Head reviews the weekend’s rugby action (RTÉ 2, 8pm).