Willie Mullins

William Peter ‘Willie’ Mullins has won the Irish National Hunt Trainers’ Championship thirteen times in total and has been perennial champion since 2007/08. He is also the most successful trainer in the history of the Cheltenham Festival but, until recently, the glaring omission from his CV was the Cheltenham Gold Cup. However, having saddled the runner-up in the so-called blue riband of steeplechasing six times, Mullins finally laid his Gold Cup hoodoo to rest when Al Boum Photo, ridden by Paul Townend, stayed on well to beat Anibale Fly by 2½ lengths and carry off the historic trophy for the first time in March, 2019.

 

Based at Closutton, Co. Carlow, Mullins has been the dominant force in Irish National Hunt racing for over three decades. He saddled his first winner at the Cheltenham Festival, Tourist Attraction, in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in 1995 and, in the meantime, has accumulated a total of 65 winners, one more than Nicky Henderson. Indeed, Mullins has won the leading trainer award at the Cheltenham Festival six times, in 2011, 2013-216 and 2019 and, in 2015, saddled eight winners across the four days, setting a record equalled by compatriot Gordon Elliott in 2018.

 

Of the main ‘championship’ races at the Cheltenham Festival, Mullins has won the has won the Champion Hurdle four times, with Hurricane Fly (2011, 2013), Faugheen (2015) and Annie Power (2016), the Stayers’ Hurdle twice, with Nichols Canyon (2017) and Penhill (2018) and the Cheltenham Gold Cup once, with the aforementioned Al Boum Photo (2019). The Queen Mother Champion Chase remains elusive, but Mullins went as close as he ever with Un De Sceaux, who was sent off at 4/6 to win the two-mile chasing championship in 2016, but finished second, beaten 3½ lengths, behind Sprinter Sacre; Mullins finished second again with Min in 2018.

 

In September, 2016, following a dispute over training fees, the Michael O’Leary-owned Gigginstown House Stud – the leading owner in National Hunt racing in Ireland on seven occasions – removed its entire string, which amounted to 60 or so horses, from Mullins. A significant number of those horses, including subsequent Cheltenham Festival winner Apple’s Jade, were transferred to Mullins’ arch rival Gordon Elliott, with the others dispersed among Henry De Bromhead, Michael ‘Mouse’ Morris, Joseph O’Brien and Noel Meade.

Newmarket

Newmarket Racecourse or, rather, Newmarket Racecourses – the racecourse complex comprises two individual courses, known as the Rowley Mile Course and the July Course – is situated on the outskirts of the town of Newmarket, Suffolk, on the border with Cambridgeshire. Newmarket has long been the headquarters of British Flat racing and is often referred to, colloquially, as ‘Headquarters’.

 

Newmarket Racecourse was founded in 1663, during the reign of King Charles II, shortly after the restoration of the monarchy in England three years previously. Indeed, the King, affectionately known as ‘Rowley’, or ‘Old Rowley’, was instrumental is the establishment and evolution of Newmarket Racecourse and for the transformation of Newmarket from a humble market town to a flourishing centre for horse racing.

 

The Rowley Mile Course, which commemorates the early Royal patronage of Newmarket, is used for racing during the spring and autumn and, annually, on the first weekend in May, plays host to the first two ‘Classic’ races of the season, 1,000 Guineas and the 2,000 Guineas. Both races were established by the Jockey Club, under the stewardship of Sir Charles Bunbury, but the 2,000 Guineas, which is open to thoroughbred three-year-old colts and fillies, was inaugurated in 1809, five years before the 1,000 Guineas, which is open to thoroughbred three-year-old fillies only. Interestingly, Sir Charles Bunbury is also credited with introducing racing to Newmarket during the summer months and the aptly-named July Course, which is used for racing between June and August, features a one-mile straight known as the ‘Bunbury Mile’.

 

Collectively, Newmarket Racecourses host a quarter of the Group One races run annually in Britain. Aside from the first Classics, the Rowley Mile Course hosts four major two-year-old races, the Cheveley Park and Middle Park Stakes in September and the Fillies’ Mile and Dewhurst Stakes in October. The July Course, on the other hand, hosts the July Cup, one of the most prestigious, and valuable, sprint races in the world and the Falmouth Stakes, open to fillies aged three years and upwards and run over the Bunbury Mile.

Aintree

As the home of the Grand National, which annually attracts a global television audience of 600 million, Aintree Racecourse is, arguably, the most instantly recognisable horse racing venue in the world. The Grand National Course consists of 16 idiosyncratic spruce fences, 14 of which are jumped twice during the world famous steeplechase, which is run over a distance of 4 miles, 2 furlongs and 74 yards.

 

The most famous fences on the National Course are Becher’s Brook which, at one point, feature a steep 3’ drop on the landing side, the Canal Turn, which marks the furthest point from the grandstand, alongside the Leeds-Liverpool Canal, and immediately after which horses must negotiate a near 90° turn, and The Chair, which is the penultimate fence on the first circuit and jumped only once, but the highest fence on the course at 5’2”. Other features of Aintree Racecourse, such as the Melling Road, which horses the cross twice during the Grand National, and the famously long, 494-yard run-in, with its equally famous ‘Elbow’ a furlong or so from the winning post, are familiar to viewers worldwide.

 

Of course, the Grand National is not the only race run on the National Course at Aintree. The other races are the Foxhunters’ Open Hunters’ Chase and the Topham Chase, which are both run over 2 miles, 5 furlongs and 19 yards at the Grand National Meeting in April and the Grand Sefton Chase, run over the same distance, and the Becher Chase, run over 3 miles, 1 furlong and 188 yards, in December.

 

Aside from the Grand National Course, the Aintree Racecourse complex also includes a traditional, ‘park’ course, known as the Mildmay Course. The Mildmay Course is a left-handed oval, about a mile-and-a-half around, laid out inside the National Course. There are eight traditional birch fences, or six hurdles, to a circuit but, despite remedial work on the bends in the late Eighties, the Mildmay Course remains sharp in character. Notable races on the Mildmay Course include the Betway Bowl, Melling Chase and Aintree Hurdle, all Grade One events run during Grand National Meeting in April.

Ascot

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Ascot Racecourse is situated in the Royal County of Berkshire in South East England, next to Windsor Great Park and less than seven miles from Windsor Castle. The racecourse was the brainchild of the last of the Stuart monarchs, Queen Anne who, in 1711, identified a tract of land on East Cote Heath – near Swinley Bottom, where the Royal Buckhounds were kennelled – as ‘ideal for horses to gallop at full stretch’.

 

The first race, Her Majesty’s Plate, worth 100 guineas, took place on August 11, 1711 and so began a connection between Ascot Racecourse and the Royal Family that has endured until the present day. That said, following the death of Queen Anne in August, 1714, Ascot Racecourse fell out of favour, but returned to prosperity under the auspices of Prince William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland – the erstwhile ‘Butcher of Culloden’, but also a keen sportsman – over four decades later. Landmark dates in the subsequent history of Ascot include the first four-day, Tuesday-to-Friday fixture in 1749, the erection of the first Royal Stand in 1790 and the first Royal Procession in 1825.

 

Nowadays, Ascot Racecourse is famous worldwide as the home of Royal Ascot, which was ‘temporarily’ extended to five days in 2002, to mark the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, but has kept the extra day ever since. Punters are more than eager to search for racing tips when Royal Ascot is around the corner. The Royal Meeting, staged annually in June, features eight Group One races, including the traditional highlight, the Gold Cup, run over two-and-a-half miles on the Thursday, also known as ‘Ladies’ Day’. Other notable fixtures staged, on the Flat, at Ascot Racecourse include the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes in July and British Champions Day in mid-October.

 

Of course, Ascot Racecourse is dual-purpose, with National Hunt racing first staged in 1966, following the closure at Hurst Park Racecourse in Surrey four years earlier. Notable National Hunt races include the Grade Two Ascot Hurdle in November, the Grade One Long Walk Hurdle in December and the Grade One Clarence House Chase in January.

 

Hamdan Al Maktoum

Hamdan Al Maktoum, or His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum to give him his full title, is the second-eldest brother of the ruling family of Dubai. However, in horse racing circles, he is better known as the owner of Shadwell Racing, whose distinctive silks, of cobalt blue with white epaulettes, have been borne to victory by numerous outstanding thoroughbreds during the last four decades.

 

Hamdan Al Maktoum developed an interest in horse racing while studying in Cambridge in the late Sixties, after travelling with his brother, Sheikh Mohammed, to watch Royal Palace win the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket in 1967. He registered his first victory as an owner when the two-year-old Mushref, trained by the late Harry Thomson ‘Tom’ Jones and ridden by Paul Cook, won a minor event at Redcar on July 30, 1980.

 

Four years later, in 1984, Hamdan Al Maktoum purchased the 6,000-acre Shadwell Estate, near Thetford, Norfolk and embarked on an enterprise that would make him one of the foremost owner-breeders of his generation. Shadwell Estate has become the British base for what is one of the most respected bloodstock operations in the world, with major facilities not only in England, but also in Ireland and the United States.

 

Hamdan Al Maktoum has won the British Flat Owners Championship four times, in 1990, 1995, 2002, and 2005 and has 12 British Classics to his name. Down the years, some of his truly great horses have included Nashwan, winner of the 2,000 Guineas, Derby, Coral-Eclipse and King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes in 1989, Dayjur, winner of the King’s Stand Stakes, Nunthorpe Stakes, Ladbrokes Sprint Cup and Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp in 1990 and Salsabil, winner of the 1,000 Guineas, Oaks and Irish Derby in the same year.

 

Hamdan Al Maktoum is famous for his loyalty and has only ever had four stable jockeys, Willie Carson, Richard Hills, Paul Hanagan and, most recently, Jim Crowley, although he also currently retains the services of Dane O’Neill as his second jockey.

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