November is the month when Willie Mullins’s rivals in jump racing learn how it feels to be a visiting fan at the Camp Nou as Barcelona take the field. One by one, a long line of exceptional talents emerges from his stable in County Carlow and even when a superstar is slightly off the pace, like Faugheen, the champion hurdler, last weekend, there is usually a team-mate there to cover.
Two more of the biggest names in the Mullins yard will appear from the tunnel this weekend, including Douvan, the favourite for the Arkle Trophy Novice Chase next March before he has even jumped a fence, who is due to run in a beginners chase at Navan on Sunday. First into action, though, is Vautour, the favourite for the Cheltenham Gold Cup and possibly the most exciting prospect of all, who is one of five declared runners for the Grade Two Stella Artois 1965 Chase at Ascot.
Mullins has dominated Grade One novice events over both hurdles and fences in recent seasons but, while horses such as Douvan, Faugheen, Un De Sceaux and Don Poli all took Grade Ones at the Festival this year, there has always been a sense that, in Mullins’s eyes at least, Vautour could prove to be best of all.
The 2014 Supreme Novice Hurdle winner followed up in the Golden Miller Chase eight months ago and heads the market not just for the Gold Cup, but also for the King George VI Chase at Kempton next month and the Ryanair Chase, the day before the Gold Cup. Bookmakers are looking no further for a favourite in any race that Vautour might contest.
“His two performances in Cheltenham have blown me away, both years,” Mullins said on Friday. “He’s a horse I’ve always had a good faith in, we’re looking forward to bringing him out and this race will be a good lead-in to Christmas.
“It’s been a difficult year with the dry weather, all of our plans have gone up in smoke because it was too dry to do too much work, but we have to get them out and run them. I could have waited longer for my own piece of mind and gone for the John Durkan [at Punchestown on 6 December] but if anything happened, I wouldn’t have any spare time to do anything for Christmas and even that is close enough.
“So this suits well, timing-wise, and it’s also good experience for him to travel across, he always takes that well.”
Vautour’s main target in the first half of the winter campaign is the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day, the middle leg of a new £1m bonus series which starts with Saturday’s Grade One Betfair Chase at Haydock and concludes in the Gold Cup. As at Ascot, just five runners will go to post for the Betfair Chase despite the incentive of a seven-figure payout in March and Mullins was not tempted to change his plans for Vautour.
“I think it’s great to have the bonus but unless you were going to Haydock anyhow, I think people haven’t got it in their mind to aim for it,” Mullins said. “Maybe they could have announced it earlier [than 13 October] but over the next few years, if they keep it, maybe people will be training horses for it then.”
All of the big names in the Mullins yard will have a broadly similar campaign over the next four months before they converge on Cheltenham in the spring.
“We’ll try to keep them apart for the first race or two but they’re going to have to meet at some stage,” he said. “You need winners to keep the season going for the owners and if it means sidestepping one or two or your own stable companions, I think that suits everyone.
“We would normally only give them three or four runs before Cheltenham, timing-wise that’s about right. If you get a run into them in October or November, then you might get one or two more runs, but those good horses are only going to run a half-dozen times a year maximum.”
Un De Sceaux could be the next potential champion to emerge, at Sandown next month. “I think he’s going to get an entry in the Tingle Creek and we’ll probably aim there,” Mullins said. “I had been aiming at a race at Cork, the Hilly Way, but I’m much happier with how he is the last week or so.”
Mullins himself, however, is unlikely to be at Sandown, even if Un De Sceaux appears, for the same reason that he will be absent from Ascot on Saturday.
“I always find that, to go over for one race, you’re in a taxi or a car, then you’re in an airport and I hate airports, then you’re in a plane and a taxi and for just one run. I also find it hard to watch the Irish racing at the racetracks, so at home you can watch everything. Airports give me a pain in the neck and I don’t look for opportunities to use them.”
Sire De Grugy, the winner of the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 2014, could be a possible opponent for Un De Sceaux in the Tingle Creek, despite finishing last on his seasonal debut at Exeter earlier this month.
“He definitely heads to the Tingle Creek,” Gary Moore, Sire De Grugy’s trainer, said on Friday. “The last three or four days, he seems to be showing up like a different horse and looks a bit more like his old self. Hopefully we can forget about his run at Exeter.
“The one thing you could take away from that was he was still in with a shout at the second-last. I think he’s three-from-three over fences at Sandown and if he doesn’t run well there, we’re in dead trouble.”
Moore, who was hospitalised earlier this month with a punctured lung and several broken ribs after being kicked by a horse at his Sussex stable, had a double on the card as Krugermac ran out an impressive winner of the opening novice hurdle before Fruity O’Rooney got back up in the final stride of a three-mile handicap chase to beat Loose Chips by a nose. Both winners were ridden by his son, Jamie.
Fruity O’Rooney’s late rally was so unexpected that he was matched at odds of 1,000 in running on Betfair, while several thousand pounds were lost on Loose Chips, who appeared to be trying to pull himself up, at the minimum price of 1.01.
