2024 was the year of the Dragon according to the Chinese zodiac, but for horse racing in Britain and Ireland, it was the year of Willie Mullins.
2024: The year of Willie Mullins
The maestro of Closutton has been dominant for a while now, but he took that to a whole new level this year, and there’s little evidence to suggest things will be any different in 2025. Here we take a look at some of the year’s major events and how Mullins conquered all before him.
The Year of Willie Mullins: Christmas 2023
Whilst most National Hunt trainers begin to ramp up their operations in October and November, Willie Mullins tends to hold fire until December and it’s a strategy that works very well for him. Once he starts, the winners don’t stop and he tends to hit top form, rather conveniently, just before Christmas.
Particularly successful at Leopardstown and Limerick during the festive period, he had seven winners at Leopardstown across their four-day meeting, despite not having a winner on Day 1. Three of those came in Grade 1 races and he also had a four-timer at Limerick on December 27. All the omens pointed towards a big year for the Mullins yard and so it proved, as a relentless flow of winners followed on both sides of the Irish Sea.
The Year of Willie Mullins: Dublin Racing Festival
It’s simply impossible to compete with Mullins at this meeting and he has been untouchable in the last couple of years. Cast your minds back to Saturday February 3, the Dublin Racing Festival kicks off and of the four Grade 1 races on the day, Mullins wins four.
A five-timer followed on Day 2 and in a shocking turn of events that included all four of the Grade 1 events. Three of them also went on to win at the Cheltenham Festival and the level of dominance shown was utterly devastating.
The Year of Willie Mullins: Cheltenham Festival
It was a surprise to no one that Mullins went on to secure the top trainer crown at the Festival and the writing was on the wall early on, with a Grade 1 treble on Day 1 that included the Champion Hurdle. Ballyburn, Fact To File and Jasmin De Vaux then completed another treble on Wednesday, and it was game over for everyone else at that point.
Drawing a blank on Thursday, surprisingly, he roared back to form on Friday by winning the Gold Cup, as well as the Triumph and County hurdles. Nine winners out of 28 races is absolutely insane and Mullins wasn’t done there.
The Year of Willie Mullins: Aintree and Punchestown
As if four winners across the first two days of the Grand National Festival wasn’t enough, he had to go and win the big one and earn a £500,000 payday in the process, which effectively led to him being the first Ireland-based trainer to claim the British Jumps Trainers’ Championship since 1954.
Mullins fired in 10 winners at the Punchestown Festival and that led to him passing €5,000,000 prize money mark, with Gordon Elliott the best part of €2,000,000 behind him. Earning just shy of £2,500,000 in Britain as well, no one could lay a glove on the master trainer in the end.
The Year of Willie Mullins: A 2024 to remember
It has been a truly unbelievable year for Mullins and the accolades continue to come his way. He was recently named Manager of the Year at the RTE Sports Awards and this is a level of recognition that transcends horse racing, putting him amongst sports greatest competitors in Ireland. Recency bias has to be considered, but could he be the greatest of all time?
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