Records tumbling for Mullins

RACING:On Saturday, Willie Mullins smashed the record for winners trained in an Irish jumps season and at least one bookmaker reckons it is heavy odds-on about him hitting the 200 winner mark by the end of the campaign.

Away We Go isn’t one of the leading lights among the champion trainer’s all-powerful yard but he earned himself a little place in history at Fairyhouse when securing Mullins winner No.156 of the National Hunt campaign.

That passed Aidan O’Brien’s mark of 155 from 17 years ago and put a seal on a season that is breaking all-statistical records.

With almost three months of the campaign to go until Punchestown in April, Stan James yesterday reckoned it is just 4 to 6 about Mullins hitting the magic 200, going 5 to 4 about him not hitting the benchmark target. And there aren’t likely to be many takers for that according to spokesman, Joe Burke.

“We reckon there are about 34 meetings left which will either be mixed or all jumps so based on the averages he has been getting so far that looks more than achievable,” Burke said yesterday.

“I know he is going to have big teams going to Cheltenham and Aintree but he doesn’t tend to let the big prizes go by at home either. It will mean beating the old record by about 33 per cent but if anyone can do it, Willie Mullins can,” he added.

Latest example

Never before has a trainer dominated a campaign in Ireland the way Mullins has 2012/’13 and Away We Go was just the latest example of something of a statistical miracle.

O’Brien’s previous record came from a total of 769 runners during the 1994/’95 season. Mullins surpassed that off only 450 runners which produces a near 35 per cent strike rate overall. O’Brien’s strike rate was 20 per cent.

“A big factor has been the wet summer – we kept going with a number of horses that we would otherwise throw out to grass but I didn’t bother throwing them out and kept them in,” said Mullins over the weekend.

“Normally we wouldn’t get going until October but by then, we had a huge amount of winners and the easy ground made that possible. We just take it day by day and every day we go racing we just hope for one winner,” the 56-year-old Carlow-based trainer added.

Mullins’s focus is now resolutely on Cheltenham where he plans to send a team of nearly 40 horses, including the Champion Hurdle favourite Hurricane Fly, and the Gold Cup second favourite Sir Des Champs.

Star name

One star name chasing a piece of history at Cheltenham will be Quevega, odds-on herself, for a fifth success in the big mares hurdle. Golden Miller, the legendary Gold Cup hero, is the only horse ever to win a race five times at the festival.

With Big Bucks out of the World Hurdle, a crack at the stayers crown had been mooted for Quevega but Mullins confirmed yesterday: “She worked on Tuesday and I was very happy with her. Hopefully she will remain in good order leading up to her bid for a fifth consecutive win in the mares hurdle.”

The one slight blip on Mullins’s big day at Fairyhouse was Prince De Beauchene finding Roi De Mee too good in the Bobbyjo Chase. However he still has the current Grand National favourite On His Own, winner of the Boyne Hurdle at Navan six days ago. Mullins said:

“To win a Grade Two race against more experienced hurdlers on only his second start over hurdles and his first race of the season was a fair effort.”

Murphy keeps faith in Quito De La Roque

Colm Murphy hopes the lameness that ruled Quito De La Roque out of his weekend target at Fairyhouse is just a temporary blip en-route to some big race targets.

The dual-Grade One winner was taken out of Fairyhouse’s Bobbyjo Chase on Saturday, a race won by another Gigginstown Stud owned horse in Roi De Mee, who Quito De La Roque had beaten in the Kinloch Brae at month earlier.

“It doesn’t seem serious and hopefully we’ll have him back in action later in the week,” said Murphy.

“I’m not sure where he will run next. I didn’t look beyond the Bobbyjo. If he’s back on the track later this week then we’ll see what the owners want to do about him running at Cheltenham. He’s in the Grand National and we have options everywhere,” he added.