No one could stop Danny Mullins on day one of the Dublin Racing Festival as he swooped up the first three Grade 1 races at Leopardstown.
The nephew of top Irish trainer Willie Mullins, who trained all three of his winners, began the day with the biggest-priced winner of his treble thanks to the success of Dancing City at 16/1 in the Grade 1 Nathaniel Lacy & Partners Solicitors Novice Hurdle.
Victory with Kargese, sporting the same colours as the former Champion Hurdle heroine Honeysuckle, in the Grade 1 Spring Juvenile Hurdle before guiding Il Etait Temps home in the Grade 1 Irish Arkle capped off a memorable day, and all three of his winners will be likely runners at next month’s Cheltenham Festival.
“My mother made me a few eggs this morning, so I’ll have the same again tomorrow,” said Danny Mullins after Il Etait Temps’ win. “On know form, I knew he [Il Etait Temps] could be in the mix and he’s definitely improving on what he has shown today.
“I don’t see any reason as to why they bombed out; I think they ran their race and I might have just better, which is nice.
“He’s definitely got more respect for fences than he had over hurdles – his jumping down the back was fantastic today whereas he would take a chance the odd time over hurdles.
“When you are showing that respect for a fence and making that ground over fences, it keeps you in the race and saves enough petrol in the tank for the next jump.
“You’d like to think he would have a proper chance in the Arkle [at the Cheltenham Festival]; that was as strong a novice chase that has been run all year.”
Trainer Willie Mullins went on to pick up the fourth and final Grade 1 contest of the day with Galopin Des Champs in the Irish Gold Cup marking his 14th victory in the famous race.
Despite what seems like a continuing conveyor belt of high-level success, the boss of Closutton still has time to reflect on his position in horse racing.
Embed from Getty Images“We pinch ourselves every day when we look at the string we have down at Closutton,” the Irish champion trainer said. “Even when walking around the stables in the evening time, we don’t take it for granted.
“We think ‘wow’, and then think about what we have coming through as you have to keep bringing in new, young stock.
“Hopefully, they will be as good as last year’s – it’s not a case of resting on our laurels because we were here one day wondering if we would ever have a horse good enough to even enter in races like this. “We’ve come up and we know what it is like to not have the horses, so we appreciate all the success we get.”
