RacingBetter News
	Friday 13th December 2024

Mullins’ Stars Showcase Their Credentials for the 2025 Cheltenham Festival

Top Irish trainer Willie Mullins has unleashed several potential 2025 Cheltenham Festival winners in his homeland during December.

Mullins’ tally after this year’s meeting stands at 103 winners and it would be shock of seismic proportions if he failed to extend his record in March.
The Irishman has become the scourge of bookmakers in recent years, with his runners at Cheltenham always receiving plenty of support in the betting ring.

While Gaelic sports betting is generally a primary focus for many Irish punters, it is fair to say that the Cheltenham Festival also holds a special place in their hearts.

They have been able to celebrate numerous payouts courtesy of Mullins’ exploits and they will fancy their chances of hitting the bookies hard at the 2025 Festival.

Energumene may be a popular pick for Irish punters when he attempts to win the two-mile Champion Chase for the third time next March.

The hugely talented ten-year-old recently made a successful return to action after 20 months on the sidelines in the Grade Two Hilly Way Chase at Cork.

He produced an accurate round of jumping under jockey Paul Townend, and passed the winning post ten lengths ahead of stablemate Dinoblue.

"That was a very exuberant display from him," Mullins said. "I thought Dinoblue would make more of the running, but Paul said his horse was just looking for fences to jump and wanted to go a better gallop, so he let him on instead of fighting him.

"I was very happy with how he jumped and he had been doing everything right since he came back in August. He didn't look like he needed the run, galloped the whole way to the line and has looked excellent since he came in.”

“Hopefully he can keep going that way and it was a nice performance to build on for the season.”

Mullins also has a useful novice chaser to go to war with this season after Dancing City made an excellent start over fences at Punchestown.

The seven-year-old previously won Grade One events over hurdles at Leopardstown, Aintree and Punchestown, but was always expected to improve over bigger obstacles.

The result never looked in doubt, and his performance forced bookmakers to slash his odds for the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase at Cheltenham.

"That was nice - he jumped brilliant in the main and then took in the scenery down the straight!" Townend said. “I gave him a slap going to the last to make him concentrate and he jumped it well. Then we heard another one coming he pulled out plenty again.

"It's as good a start as you could hope for. He's very good - he has been good since he started and we were hoping for that. I was happy enough to take a lead, but I didn't break stride and let him roll along.

"I think he'll come on for the run, all of ours are, especially over that trip (three miles). He took his blow, had a look and went on again so I’m very happy."

Having enjoyed plenty of success over the past few weeks, Mullins has his sights firmly set on adding to his tally of winners over the festive period.

A blockbuster Boxing Day clash with Constitution Hill in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton Park could be on the cards for Lossiemouth, according to owner Rich Ricci.

Lossiemouth jumped to the head of the Champion Hurdle betting after winning at Fairyhouse earlier this month and Ricci thinks Mullins may send her to Kempton for Christmas.

“We might go to Leopardstown for the Dublin Racing Festival,” Ricci said. “Last year we went to the International (at Cheltenham), but she would carry a bigger penalty this year.

“I would say we’re probably leaning towards that (Christmas Hurdle), but we can lean the other way as well. There’s the option of the race on New Year’s Day which Annie Power won at Cheltenham.

“She will run somewhere at Christmas, but I think at the moment he’s talking about the Christmas Hurdle. I think his (Mullins) view is you’re the Champion Hurdle favourite and you’re supposed to run in the Christmas Hurdle, but we’ll see what happens.

“We’ll see if she’s all right to get there - who knows? She will definitely have an entry and we will take it from there.”