Casey says Mullins is desperate to win the Melbourne Cup
David Casey says winning the Melbourne Cup is high on Willie Mullins' wish list Photo: ©INPHO/Tom Mher
Powerhouse trainer Willie Mullins won both the British and Irish Champion Trainer titles last season and assistant trainer David Casey has revealed the secrets behind Mullins’ enormous success. Casey also said:
- Mullins is keen to have another crack at the Melbourne Cup in November - it is an itch he wants to scratch having yet to win the prestigious race
- How the trainer buys top class Jumps horses but if they struggle, is more than happy to run them on the Flat and that is a secret to his success in the other discipline
- Mullins has no plans for retirement any time soon despite his utter dominance of the sport
It is not something I have ever spoken to him about. I don’t know what he has in his head. He would always want to have some sort of involvement in training.
He just has a great appetite for the game. Everyone loves training winners, and he’s trained a lot. The more you win the more you want to keep going.
Sometimes he may suggest something that surprises you and we might think that might not work. But we always bow to his superior knowledge. And, usually when he decides on something which we don’t think would work, it does!
He hasn’t said anything to me about it! Obviously, we always try to buy high class Flat horses that can go jumping and if they don’t get to the very top in jumps racing, they can go back and be very competitive on the Flat like Vauban, Max Dynamite and Absurde.
Who knows? We buy them as three year olds to be maybe a Champion Hurdle prospect down the line. They could end up winning very good races on the Flat.
But it is not something in his long-term strategy - not that I am aware of.
Racing doesn’t have a broad enough appeal for him to be Sports Personality of the Year, but he should be thought of as a manager of the year. You can’t overestimate what he did last season by winning both the Irish and the British trainer’s title. It was phenomenal and you have only got to see that it’s been done only once in history over the jumps with Vincent O’Brien 70 odd years ago.
He should be recognised as the Manager of the Year in my opinion, that includes all sports.
Myself, Patrick [Mullins, son] and Ruby [Walsh, ex-jockey] have been around the yard for a very long time. We know the routine. I can’t say we know the way he thinks because no-one knows the way he thinks. If he is not around, he trusts us to make the right call.
[With nearly 200 horses at the yard] It’s organised confusion really! A lot of the staff have been there a long time and Willie trains them usually by the eye. He is just very good at it and always trying to improve the facilities and learn everywhere he goes and gather information. He never stops learning.
Willie has always tried not to turn away too many [horses]. Sometimes you are just full and have to. He has tried to accommodate most people along the way, because you just never know that the one you’re turning away could be the next Gold Cup winner.
We didn’t set out to do it, the stars aligned! We had a very good Cheltenham and other English trainers didn’t. Then we won the English Grand National and things fell our way - we won the Scottish National by a short head.
It wasn’t the plan at the start of the year. It is just that we had a chance after Cheltenham and so we ran a couple of extra horses at Aintree.
I would imagine it would be the same again this year. We won’t set out looking at the double because Ireland is the prerogative. If things turn out well in the spring who knows. We’ll keep it at home at the start but if we have a chance at the back end of Cheltenham then it might be something we look at again.
Ideally for racing to support itself, a Tote monopoly would have helped. Maybe it’s too late for that now. There are so many people pulling in different directions in English racing rather than all fighting for the cause. All they do is fight for their own cause.
In Ireland, a huge aspect is that a lot of finance comes from the Government. In England it’s through the Levy board. I would find a lot of race meetings in England are run purely for the bookmakers. I wouldn’t watch them, and I can’t imagine them having appeal for anyone except for the guy in the bookies having his fiver.
Historically Ireland is based on a farming background, The whole racing and breeding industry brings a lot of revenue to the country, the Government in Dublin recognises that. The government appreciates how important it is to the economy. It’s worth over €2bn which trickles down.
At the moment we have three entries in Vauban, Absurde and Hipop de Loire. Both Absurde and Vauban ran last year and the owners and Willie are keen to have another go.
Hipop de Loire was unlucky in the Ebor and might wait - Willie will chat to the owners.
It is an itch he wants to scratch and it would be great if he won it.
It is a huge race and after last year the fact that we have been so close. He has had a second, third and a sixth. Max Dynamite was runner up to Prince of Penzance and Michelle Payne in 2015.
We are predominately jumps racing. On the Flat, the Melbourne Cup would be the most attainable race for us. It is unlikely we are ever going to have a favourite for the Derby, although you never know.
We will have a couple in the handicap at Leopardstown on Saturday. And Vauban, Absurde and Belloccio are in the Irish St Leger on Sunday at the Curragh. Absurde might not run as it’s soon enough after Chester for him. Vauban went to York and there’s a strong possibility he will run again. And with Belloccio, a lot will depend on the ground. He has plenty of other options in the handicaps.
There’s Ballyburn, who I’d love to see go chasing - he would be phenomenal. Then there’s Jasmin de Vaux who won the Cheltenham Bumper last year and will go novice hurdling and we have a few more young French horses coming through.
I like the look of Kiss Will, he looks like a nice horse, and I would like to see Lossiemouth stepping up again to see what she could do, whether she sticks to Mares’ company or takes on the boys, those are the questions to be asked in the next while.
We get into overdrive from the end of November/ start of December around John Durkan weekend. We then like to have some nice horses out around Christmas.
We have a lot of nice new young horses in the yard. All our geese are swans at the moment. They are all champions! But we haven’t tested them yet! You hope you’re going to get a couple of stars out of it. We know they won’t all be. If we get a couple that would be great. You buy all these horses expecting or at least hoping they’ll be champions but only a few turn into swans. At the moment they are all winners because they haven’t run yet!
You’d imagine if he went back to the English National, however his season goes, he’s going to end up top weight or close to top weight so that might be a fraction difficult.
He would definitely deserve the chance to go down the Gold Cup route and see how he gets on.
David Casey was speaking to BoyleSports, who will be offering the latest Leopardstown Winter Festival odds later this year.
