Willie Mullins going into €2 million Dublin Racing Festival in dominant form

Willie Mullins’s usual dominance of the Dublin Racing Festival could be underlined with a vengeance in this weekend’s €2 million showpiece event at Leopardstown.

Even by heady standards that have seen the champion trainer win 38 races in the festival’s six-year history, he appears to be going into this renewal with overwhelming strength in depth.

Of the eight Grade One contests up for grabs at Ireland’s pre-eminent Cheltenham rehearsal, Mullins has the ante-post favourite for seven of them.

Only the outstanding Barry Connell-owned and trained Marine Nationale in Saturday’s Goffs Irish Arkle disrupts Mullins dominance in the markets.

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Otherwise, Galopin Des Champs in that day’s Paddy Power Irish Gold Cup and State Man in Sunday’s featured Channelle Irish Champion Hurdle will be back to defend titles they won in 2023 and prodigiously backed up by other exciting stable talent such as El Fabiolo in the Dublin Chase.

Galopin Des Champs could once again clash with old rival Fastorslow but ruled out of that race is Gerri Colombe who will go straight to Cheltenham for the Gold Cup.

“We said we’d go straight to Cheltenham. There’s Punchestown and Aintree afterwards. We said all year that Cheltenham is the main aim, so we don’t want to knock the edge off him so close to it. I’ll train him for Cheltenham and try to have 100 per cent on the day,” Gordon Elliott said on Sunday.

Mullins secured a record eight winners in all at last year’s DRF, including half a dozen of the top-flight contests. The haul included a 1,739-1 five-timer on Day Two. There are 15 races in all up for grabs at the festival.

The power of the Clusutton operation was emphasised by how only Galopin Des Champs and State Man were the stable’s No.1 picks and champion jockey Paul Townend will once again have an embarrassment of riches to pick from.

The Gigginstown Stud-owned pair Predators Gold (Lacy Solicitors Novice Hurdle) and Storm Heart (McCann Fitzgerald Spring Juvenile Hurdle) top betting lists for Saturday’s opening contests but will be joined by multiple stable companions.

Ballyburn is another likely Townend pick in Sunday’s Tattersalls Novice Hurdle and while JP McManus’s No. 1 jockey Mark Walsh is on board the Ladbrokes Novice Chase favourite Fact To File, Townend on Grangeclare West is likely to represent his biggest threat.

It is an ominous prospect for Mullins’s opposition, and on the back of some of the outcomes of Cheltenham’s ‘Trials Day action’ at Cheltenham, there’s scant consolation from any hope in a dip in stable form.

Lossiemouth’s sparkling return to action in the Unibet Hurdle was preceded on Saturday by Capodanno’s authoritative success in the Cotswold Chase.

The horse that finished a distant third behind Galopin Des Champs in the Savills over Christmas easily put some leading cross-channel Gold Cup hopes to the sword.

Ashroe Diamond’s Grade Two success at Doncaster contributed to an overall Saturday six-timer for Mullins that also included Grade De Grugy landing the Solerina Hurdle at Fairyhouse.

A record attendance of almost 35,000 were at last year’s Dublin Racing Festival and Leopardstown officials are once again hoping to get a ‘bounce’ from taking place during a Bank Holiday weekend.

The first St Brigid’s Day in 2023 turned the festival into a long weekend and produced a bigger crowd level than many had anticipated.

“We definitely did [get a bounce] last year. It was the first year of that and I think it took everybody a bit by surprise. This year, everybody knows it’s a Bank Holiday and we’ll wait and see if we get much of a gain.

“It might depend on what the weather is like but no doubt it will assist us. We hope we will match stride for stride last year’s figures which was 40 per cent more than any other DRF,” Leopardstown’s chief executive, Tim Husbands, said on Sunday.

“Remember, 28 per cent of the racegoers were from the UK last year and there’s no reason to believe it will be less than that this year,” he added.

In other news, Aidan O’Brien got 2024 off to a perfect start at Gulfstream Park on Saturday night when Warm Heart ended her racing career on a perfect note in the $1 million Pegasus World Cup on turf.

The Prix Vermeille and Yorkshire Oaks winner made light of a drop to nine furlongs and made the most of another vintage Ryan Moore ride up the rails.

Moore mirrored his acclaimed Breeders Cup effort on Auguste Rodin last November to navigate the Irish filly up the inside in the straight and hold off local opposition by half a length.

Warm Heart, O’Brien’s first runner of the year, set a course record into the bargain and will now visit Coolmore’s stallion Justify in Kentucky.

“I was happy to wait. The leader, he was always laying out, and he weakening, and I knew I had plenty of horse,” Moore reported.