Willie Mullins Stable Tour 2025/26 - Key quotes from the Champion Trainer

Ballyburn didn‘t really seem to enjoy his time over fences last season and the plan is to send him back hurdling with the Stayers’ Hurdle as his long-term aim. We brought him back in early and did a lot of groundwork with him to get him good and strong. He can of course go back over fences if we want to do that, but hurdling is what is on our minds for him for now.

He obviously a Ryanair or Gold Cup type. JP McManus owns the Gold Cup winner Inothewayurthinkin, so he might want to keep them apart, we’ll have to cross those bridges when we get to them. We think the King George would be a lovely race for him and he is one of a few of ours that are in the mix for that.

I’ve always thought that he had no trouble staying. He jumps to his right, but it doesn’t stop him winning left-handed. He’ll start off in the John Durkan and then his target in the King George. We’ll see after that, but looking at his age and profile, I feel he could be a coming force in the Gold Cup.

We keep it nice and simple with Galopin Des Champs and the same five races as last season are the plan for him. We talked about maybe giving him one race less this season, but he was brilliant at the Punchestown Festival, and we’ll put him on the same schedule again. All seems great with him since he’s come back in. The Gold Cup is his big aim again.

He’s going novice chasing. He is every inch a chaser and I’m really looking forward to seeing him race over a fence. He’s a very keen horse and I think fences will help him settle. He could be careless at his hurdles last season, but he should respect fences more and I think he’ll be well suited by them. He looks one for the Arkle.

We’ll look to get her started in the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle. After that, you’ll all just have to guess which race she’ll go for! I don’t want to get into the hassle we had last season with last-minute changes. She’ll tell us how she is, but she’d look very tough to beat in the Mares’ Hurdle if we pointed her that way.

The plan is to start him off in the Hilly Way Chase. It was a big surprise to us that he made the jumping mistakes that he did at the Cheltenham Festival. It wasn’t like him at all. We just want to work out whether jumping at two-mile pace is an issue for him, whether we got the riding tactics wrong or whether it was just a one-off. Our inclination is to start him off over two miles and if he jumps well, he might well stay at around that trip. If his jumping hints that he might need a change, we have the option of going up with trip. He looks stronger than ever this season.

He was just very unlucky in the Champion Hurdle last season. That show he showed all of us what Paul Townend had been telling me about him. He had no doubt in his mind that he was going to ride State Man in the Champion Hurdle even if Lossiemouth turned up. He has always had State Man way ahead of her. It didn’t look that way at times last season, but State Man is an older, lazier horse and was only doing half what he was capable of until we put the cheekpieces on him. Those Doctor Dinos can be lazy and the cheekpieces were a huge help to him. We’ll look to start him in the Morgiana and put him on a similar schedule to last season.

She’ll go novice hurdling and we’ll start her off in mares’ races if we can. She’s one that could end up taking on the boys, but I’m always a believer in winning the races you can at Cheltenham and come home with a winner rather than a loser, so I’d imagine she’ll be one for the Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle if all goes well through the season. It would be hard to think that we might end up with a better mare than her. She races lazily enough and if she looked like she wanted further, the Ballymore would be there as an option too.

He’s a big, chasing type, but we will go novice hurdling with him. He’ll be one for the staying division, I’d imagine.

He was excellent the other day at Listowel, but he’s not going to make it to the Royal Bond Novice Hurdle as he’s picked up a little injury that will need a month off, maybe more. We’ll be looking to have him back for a spring campaign. He’ll keep improving as he matures, much like his mother did.

I like him. He’s a nice type and will go novice hurdling.

She’s one that will definitely go hurdling. She disappointed us a little bit in the second half of last season, but she’s come back in nice and strong. She’ll jump a fence down the line and will stay well.

He was very good the other day. I think he’s improving out of all recognition. We wanted to keep him as a colt, but we couldn’t get him to show us any ability, but after we gelded him, he just seemed to mature. However, that is a late-maturing family.

She’s still a maiden over hurdles and ran very well in the Triumph Hurdle. That puts her up there with the most interesting ones amongst the fillies and mares for novice hurdles this season. Looking at her pedigree, she might want further, but we’ll see.

I’m looking forward to getting him back over hurdles. Harry Cobden was very impressed with him in his two runs in the spring, but he’s disappointed me since in his runs on the Flat. I’ve given him a little break to have him ready for the National Hunt season proper. I think he could be a big player in either the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle or the Ballymore, but probably more likely the former.

He looks to have enough potential to be sent down the Champion Hurdle route. We had a few bits of bother with him last season, but so far this season he has been good. He has the ability, he has the engine, just sometimes his training schedule gets interrupted. If we get a clear run at him, we have the Fighting Fifth Hurdle in mind as his starting point. He’s owned by the same connections as State Man, so rather than them both running in the Morgiana, it will make sense to split them up.

I think our inclination at the minute is to stay hurdling with him. He’s been a difficult horse to train, and he might be easier to train if we stay over hurdles. I don’t want to be held to that, but that’s the way I’m thinking at the minute. He has a huge engine and would seem to be a two-miler.

I’d like to go novice chasing with her, but we’ll have to see. I need to discuss it with her owners and school her over fences before we make a decision.

We’re going to have to have a good think about whether he stays hurdling or goes chasing. He won a point-to-point, but he didn’t jump great. I have to figure out if he’s another Ballyburn and might just prefer hurdling. I’m not going to make a decision until a good bit more schooling done with him.

We are undecided as to whether to stay hurdling or go novice chasing with her. We’ll school her over fences and see what her owners would like to do before deciding.

He looks more of a chaser than a hurdler, but he will stay over hurdles this season. I was disappointed in his two runs for us, but I think he’ll be a different kettle of fish once he sees a fence. He’s a huge, big, long chasing sort and maybe our hurdles don’t suit him as well as the French hurdles which are bigger and more substantial. Maybe the new white hurdles will suit him?!

We won’t be in a rush with him, and I’d say he won’t run until after Christmas. It’s tough for them when four rising five and I’m happy to give them as easier time in this season. We might look to run him over two-and-a-half miles and avoid the Champion Hurdle horses.

She’ll be one for mares’ hurdles and should be one that can progress.

He’s a realty exciting horse for novice chases and will be one for the staying division. He’s a huge horse, well over 17hh, and he has lots of scope to jump. We won’t worry too much about what trip we start him off over, but as the season progresses and he goes up in grade, he’ll go up in trip.

He’s a huge horse and his summer break has done him the power of good. He’s turning seven and with the size of him, we don’t think he’d have much respect for hurdles, so I think we’re going to go straight over fences with him. He looks a staying type.

He’ll be one for novice chasing and looks one for the staying division. I don’t think we’ve seen the best of him yet.

He’s in great shape. He didn’t quite live up to the hype that surrounded him last season, but he’s a nice prospect. He might go novice chasing, but we’ll see. We thought he could get up to the top echelon last season, but he didn’t, so let’s see if he can do so this season.

He’s a very strong-going horse. The Donnellys have State Man and Anzadam already, but I think this fella could be another one of Champion Hurdle quality if he was asked to do that. However, looking at how keen he is in his races, we’re going to go over fences with him and give him the chance to be an Arkle horse. He has huge ability, a lot more than he has shown on the track so far. If he settles better over fences, he’ll hopefully show on the track what he has shown us at home.

He’s improving and would look a candidate for the King George. We might start him off in the Clonmel Oil Chase or the John Durkan.

She’s come back into the yard in great shape. We’ll send her down the same route as last season and will look to end up in the Mares’ Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. The more forward tactics paid off for her in the race last season.

He had a difficult season between setbacks and falls. Going back over hurdles has crossed our minds, but I suspect we’ll stay chasing. I wasn’t happy with him when he came back in from grass, he didn’t do as well as the other horses, so I set his training schedule back by six weeks and that means he won’t run before Christmas.

We are aiming him at the Tingle Creek Chase. We don’t usually like to go there with horses having their first run of the season, but he performed so well when fresh in the Celebration Chase that it made us think it might be an option. He could possibly go for the Clonmel Oil Chase first if he’s ready and the ground is suitable, otherwise we’ll go to Sandown without a run. Based on what he showed at Sandown, he looks likely to be a big player in the two-mile chase division.

He would look an obvious candidate for the John Durkan and then end up in the Ryanair Chase. We would be open to trying him over longer trips again.

He had a great season and got a great ride to win the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase. He’s rated 159, so he’d have the option of a Grand National campaign, but he went so well at Cheltenham last season that you’d be tempted to run him in the Gold Cup if all goes well to that point.

To me he is quite entitled to be entered in the Gold Cup. However, looking at how much of a natural he was over the Grand National fences, that is always in the back of our mind. It will probably be a case of getting him started in Graded company and assessing his performances to see if we think he has improved enough to warrant a shot at the Gold Cup.

The obvious thing to do with her is aim for the Mares’ Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. She might start off in the mares’ chase at Clonmel. Her form might suggest that she is a right-handed mare, but that’s just the way the races fell and I’m sure she’ll be fine going left-handed.