Willie Mullins’ assistant trainer David Casey: We didn’t expect Ethical Diamond to win $5m race at the Breeders’ Cup
Willie Mullins celebrates Ethical Diamond's Breeders' Cup win Photo: Healy Racing
- Legendary Carlow trainer Willie Mullins pulled off one of his biggest racing heists of all-time last weekend as his runner Ethical Diamond won the $5m Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar - a Flat race
- Mullins’ right-hand man, David Casey, was the driving force behind the decision to run the Ebor winner at Del Mar and told BOYLE Sports that they team didn’t expect their horse to win the huge prize Stateside
- Casey watched the race in Australia, where he was with another Mullins runner Aburde before the Melbourne Cup, and revealed the celebrations after Ethical Diamond’s win weren’t quite as outrageous as you might have thought - but that could change back in Ireland
- The assistant trainer also revealed that the Del Mar winner could chase another big pot in Dubai next April at the Sheema Classic but there won’t be an influx of runners on the Flat Closutton team will remain a Jumps yard, despite the huge riches on offer in the sprints and also reflected on Absurde’s performance in the Melbourne Cup.
Basically, Willie just said after the Ebor to find a race for him. There was a Grade 3 at Ascot but otherwise there was obviously not much left at this time of the year for him.
So I looked at the American race. I looked at the entries and the runners from the last couple years, and he wasn't too far off the ratings of the horses that had finished in around fourth or fifth.
I mentioned this to Willie and said, ‘Look it might be a bit mad, but it's an option for him!’ Willie kind of said, ’Yeah, why not?’ He had never made it to Del Mar before and that appealed to him.
You never know if we're ever going to have a Flat horse good enough to run at a meeting like that ever again.
We probably didn’t expect him to win or anything like that, but it's all experience and if we did ever have a horse good enough to go back then at least you might learn something from the experience this year for the future. That was our thinking.
He mentioned it to the owner Margaret Heffernan and the HOS syndicate and they all agreed it was a good idea.
We set the balls in motion about two months ago.
After the Ebor his rating had gone up to 112 and I kind of thought there was a little bit more improvement there. I'm thinking about 115 maybe.
I knew Rebel’s Romance would run in the race. He's won it the last two times and he's rated 122 now. When he won it in the first year, he was only probably 114 and a 114 horse was fourth or fifth I think last year and got a good cheque.
Grass horses in America aren't usually as good as the European horses and stayers, so I reckoned there was a chance that maybe he could be competitive to be in fourth or fifth probably, which was as much as people were hoping for him.
There were the likes of Rebel’s Romance, Minnie Hauk and Goliath who were probably the three standouts. We know he likes fast ground as well and that obviously came into the thinking too.
No, he did his work before he left. Basically, he had a two day quarantine out there which is just walking and from thereon he's just had a canter each day to keep him fresh for the race. We knew he was fit as a flea as he'd been running all season.
You're hoping obviously with the calibre of horse that was in the race, that it would be a good pace and, having spoken to Willie and spoken to Dylan [Browne McMonagle, jockey], we thought there'd be pace on the front end.
We felt if we took on the pace, we mightn’t be good enough to keep it going. But from our wide draw as well, drawing 14, we’d just take a chance to drop in and get him relaxed and hopefully we'd have plenty left to come home in the straight and that's the way it worked out.
No praise is high enough. He's a very, very good rider and he's obviously been showing that even before this year.
He’s been riding on the crest of a wave this year and he is now champion jockey. He’s a really nice kid as well and he's very cool, very relaxed. Nothing seems to faze him you know so we were delighted to have him.
I'd imagine if he didn't have to screw it, he probably would have come for the Melbourne Cup.
After the Ebor there's a bit of time before the end of the season. We just decided to have a look and see what was around basically. The Breeders’ Cup was one we'd never been to before so we thought ‘let's try something new.’
It was about 9am in Melbourne.
We were in the yard actually. We had just finished our work with Absurde, myself and Emily so we watched it in the canteen in the yard. So, there's myself and Emily Siegle and Paul and Steve, two lads that were over with Simon Crisford’s horses.
We were just watching the race and then Emily who looks after him and Absurde as well, was getting fairly emotional. She was getting fairly excited, the longer the race was going on.
I was happy looking at the race thinking he's travelling great and it's looking good and hopefully we could finish where we had hoped in the first four or five.
But then off the bend you're getting a bit of a thrill, you know. The turn of foot he showed was pretty awesome and from thereon we cheered him home.
I suppose we never really expected to have a Flat horse good enough to compete in those sorts of races. So sometimes when you're not expecting it, it's a little bit more pleasurable. I'm sure everybody got a great thrill out of it.
I went for lunch with a few people who came over for the Melbourne Cup from Ireland and a few locals. We had a couple of drinks!
My answer is probably going to be, ‘no.’ But that’s without talking to Willie. We're a jumping yard predominantly, and I think that's the way we will stay.
But we always look to buy the type of horse that can make into decent Flat horses if they don't make it as, say, a top class champion hurdler or something like that. We've always kind of bought that horse, but I suppose Ethical Diamond was the one that stepped up to the plate. He had improved plenty on the Flat.
A couple of my friends put up a few of the GIFs there.
The fact that it was kind of so unexpected, was probably a greater thrill for him.
We only talked about it briefly, but I think he was pretty pleased. He just kind of smiled and laughed. I think he was a bit tired after the flight over.
He had a decent enough rating from the Flat before we bought him and last year, we ran him at Ascot thinking he'd win and he finished fourth after running very free.
He got a bump coming out of the stalls and he ran very keen. So, we didn't run him on the Flat again after and said we’d target Ascot again this year.
So we gave him a bit of a break and brought him back and gave him a few runs over hurdles. He ran really well at Cheltenham in the County Hurdle. Then he went to Ayr and probably didn't jump as well [in the Scottish Champion Hurdle]. The going was slow on the day and he definitely was better on faster ground.
That led then to Ascot where he won and then from Ascot we went straight to Ebor.
I'd imagine his hurdling career is on hold at the moment!
A few people out here were congratulating us after the win in Del Mar. I said, ‘Yeah it was great, a good prep for a Novice Chase at Christmas.’ That was tongue in cheek of course.
I think he's entered in Hong Kong in December, but it might come a little bit soon for him. I don't know whether Willie would want him to travel on again so soon. And then you're looking at horses, races like Meydan next year, the Sheema Classic or something like that.
I'd imagine him back to America for Turf races over there, the Man O’ War Stakes and races like that.
Meydan is in March which we don't usually target horses for because it's Cheltenham time and we are flat out organising that.
So, all those options are up for him now.
Top dog, at least of the Flat horses. I haven't checked his rating since the other day, but I imagine he's now probably the highest rated Flat horse we've ever had in the yard. That definitely elevated him up.
Our yard is actually kind of a 100% jumping, but probably 10% of those jumpers will run on the Flat as well. Until they get to a level maybe of an Ethical Diamond and then they’ll get a reprieve from the jumping for a while!
Listen, you're always disappointed not to win, but I think he ran very consistently. I think he was competitive. He finished eight, but he was actually only beaten I think less than a quarter of a length for fifth. There were four in the line head bobbing.
So, it could technically have been fifth which is another very good run. He's run very consistently in his three runs down here in the Melbourne Cup. Fifth this year would have been very good, because it was probably a slightly better race quality-wise this year.
Absurde came on a pallet on his own in the plane. Emily travelled with him. This year we came five weeks before the race because we planned on running in the Caulfield Cup first.
So we came on the first shipment. There's two shipments that usually come out.
Basically, the horse has to do two weeks quarantine in Newmarket before he leaves and two weeks quarantine here in Australia when he arrives, which means he can't interact with any other horses, any local horses or any other international horses, only the five or six that are in the compound. And we have the use of a racecourse here for exercise. Everything is provided for us on that side of it. That makes it pretty easy.
There is a lot of bloods, a lot of swabs and a lot of trot ups, a lot of veterinary work in the first couple of weeks. Temperatures are taken and all of that just to make sure that everything is okay.
The cargo planes are huge. I travelled a couple of times to Hong Kong and basically, they were putting horses on and there were also three or four cars and different stuff in the back of a plane.
There's usually five or six seats up top, just behind the cockpit. That’s where I sat. They're pretty big and pretty comfortable seats actually. It's not the worst way to travel on a cargo plane.
Absurde is an experienced traveller at this stage now and he lost very little weight. He even drank plenty. When you're actually travelling on long distances like that with horses. You don't necessarily mind if they don't eat so much but you definitely want them drinking. You don't want them getting too dehydrated. He drank plenty and was fine so didn't lose that much weight.
I'd say you could double that easily. I don’t know exactly. And that would be just for the plane! On top of that it obviously costs plenty of money to get down and to run in the race.
I’m coming back on Friday morning. The horse stays for another six days after.
We always felt the Melbourne Cup was the highest quality Flat race we could win - but the Breeders’ Cup might have changed that We'd love to win it!
We always felt that it was the highest quality Flat race that we could possibly win that was attainable for the yard. The Breeders’ Cup has probably changed that a bit!
We never thought we'd have a horse for a Group 1 on the Flat. Obviously with the type of horse we buy, we thought the Melbourne Cup was the race, but it still has so much world prestige that yes, we definitely will keep trying to win it.
It's hard to know. He's had three goes at it. It would be hard to imagine that he could come back a fourth time and win the race.
I’d imagine there's younger horses we have coming through, that would be improving ahead of him.
We are obviously always on the lookout for horses and hopefully we might find one or two more that are capable of coming down.
A horse that won at Ascot this year, Sober, could possibly come. He’s a son of Camelot.
Then we've bought some Flat horses already this season to go jumping but they wouldn't be horses from Melbourne, this year, maybe two years down the line. They’ll go jumping first.
I think so, yes. If you can, you always want to try and break new boundaries.
Willie is very, very good like that. Even if we hadn’t won at Del Mar, you're hoping that you learn something and get the experience that it will stand you in good stead if you ever have a good horse again.
He's not afraid to have a challenge and see what happens. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work, but hopefully you learn something that one day it will work for you.
I wouldn’t have thought we’d send a bigger contingent to Del Mar next year. It's just a one-off. If you have a horse that fits and is good enough.
But you never know hopefully we might have one or two in the future.
It's flat out now. The John Durkan is only a couple of weeks out. We’ve had plenty of rain, so the ground is getting softer again, which is good for the horses and they're all building up. So, some of the better class horses will appear very shortly Maybe we'll have something at Cheltenham this month but as I say, you've got the John Durkan meeting and you've got Navan on next weekend, then Fairyhouse, and into the Hatton's Grace and the Drinmore the week after at Punchestown, so we've got three big weekends coming up at home.
Obviously Bambino Fever won the Cheltenham Bumper last year and won at Punchestown so she's one for novice hurdles. The likes of Kopek des Bordes and Final Demand can be two top class novice chasers. I'm really looking forward to those for the winter.
Then there’s the old stalwarts, Galopin des Champs, State Man, Fact To File and the Lossiemouth’s of this world.
David Casey is assistant trainer to Willie Mullins and was speaking to Boylesports, where you can find the latest Leopardstown Festival odds
