Paul Nicholls’s chance of retaining his title as champion jumps trainer appears significantly improved by an assertion from Willie Mullins that he does not plan a much greater assault on the British championship this winter. The Irishman, whose challenge was repelled on the last day of the last season in April, said in particular that it would not suit him to send over an increased number of runners to Britain in the autumn, a time of year when he has traditionally kept his big guns on home soil.
“I enjoyed it as much as anyone did,” Mullins said on Monday, reflecting on the extraordinary climax to last season, when the final card at Sandown featured as many runners from his yard and from Nicholls’s as the two men could rustle up. “It was something to aim for at the time.”
Mullins would have been the first trainer since Vincent O’Brien more than 60 years ago to win the British jumps title from Ireland and that landmark achievement may have only been postponed. No jumps stable has a greater collection of talent, with Annie Power, Douvan, Vautour and Faugheen just the headline acts in a cast of extraordinary depth.
But Mullins is not minded to bring them over just for the sake of a title pursuit. “I don’t think it’s a priority,” he said. “If it happens, it happens. My priority is to get my own horses ready and get them going here.
“Like last season, if we have a particularly good Cheltenham [Festival in March], you would probably think it might be on then. We’ve had two exceptional Cheltenhams the last two years but you’re not guaranteed that every year.”
Sending horses to Britain in autumn, the trainer said, is “not my modus operandi”. He added: “We like to get our team set at home here and get them right, rather than chasing something that is difficult. A lot of your big prizes at that time of year are handicaps and that’s lucky bag stuff. We find it hard to win handicaps in Britain.”
Mullins could, however, take an interest in the valuable non-handicap Betfair Chase at Haydock in late November. “If a horse is ready for it, we might do that. We’ll certainly keep an eye on it. But it’s very hard sometimes to send a horse abroad for the first run of the season.
“We’d all like to win [the title]. It’s not as if we’re dismissing it out of hand. But we’ll look after our fundamentals first. We’ll try and keep our horses sound, rather than rushing them to win early-season races. We’re going to stick to what we’ve been doing all along and if we can see an opportunity to win more prize money in England, well and good.”
Mullins believes his team for this winter is as good as ever, though he is, as usual, unwilling to be tied down to specific targets for his big runners at such an early stage. Douvan is thought likely to be aimed at the major two-mile chases while Faugheen and Annie Power are expected to dominate at that distance over hurdles, perhaps starting at Punchestown on 20 November.
Godolphin have the 6-4 favourite for the Middle Park Stakes in Blue Point on Saturday, following the withdrawal at the five-day stage of Aidan O’Brien’s Caravaggio, who was revealed last month to have had a setback. Lady Aurelia, trained by the American Wesley Ward, is a 10-11 shot for the Cheveley Park on the same card, with her most obvious opposition coming from Queen Kindly, a daughter of Frankel.
