The different incentives available across Europe this summer for those in search of prize money and black type success!

Article by Lissa Oliver

In February, the European Pattern Committee (EPC) announced changes to the 2024 European programme of Flat Black-Type races. The EPC sanctioned a total of 826 Black-Type races (838 in 2023), comprising 416 Group races (418 in 2023) and 410 Listed races (420 in 2023). Five Pattern races have been downgraded in 2024, with a further 11 Listed races losing that status.

Jason Morris, Chair of the EPC, explained, “This year will see another contraction in the number of Pattern and Listed races to be staged throughout Europe, with the total number having declined from 852 races in 2022 to 826 in 2024. The European Pattern Committee continues to enforce the most stringent international quality control measures so that the racing and breeding industries can have the utmost confidence in the quality of European Black Type.”

This leaves trainers rethinking traditional routes to Black Type, but at the same time adding new avenues, some of which could lead to some interesting destinations. The EPC approved an application from Denmark to stage a new Black Type race in 2024, with the Golden Mile at Klampenborg over 1600m (8f) for three-years-olds and upwards in May being upgraded to Listed status and carrying a purse of €46,749 (£40,000). 

In Ireland, the Salsabil Stakes, a 2000m (10f) race for three-year-old fillies at Navan in April, has been upgraded from Listed to Group 3. Ireland will also stage a new Listed race for three-year-olds over 2400m (12f) at Gowran Park 27th July, the Marble City Stakes worth €46,749 (£40,000).

Flagship races in Poland and Spain

Although no new Listed race applications have been received from emerging racing nations, the EPC noted the strong first Listed edition of the Wielka Warszawska in Poland in 2023. Run over 2600m (13f) at Sluzewiec Racecourse 6th October, for three-year-olds up, it carries a prize of €111,138 (£95,092).

The €85,000 (£72,728) Gran Premio de Madrid in Spain also continues to perform well after being allocated Listed status by the EPC in 2022. It’s run at Madrid over 2500m (12.5f) 22nd June for three-year-olds up. 

These were created through the recent Flagship Race scheme by the European and Mediterranean Horseracing Federation (EMHF) and EPC, allowing countries with no Black Type races to apply for a single Flagship race which qualifies for Black Type at a lower rating level. This provides horses with a slightly easier Black Type opportunity, by 2.2kg (5lbs). It also opens up new and often interesting destinations for owners and team.

Morocco 

Dr Paull Khan, Secretary-General of the EMHF, explains, “The quality control that is applied to European Black Type is the most stringent in the world. This is good, of course, because everyone recognises the strength of European Group and Listed races. But, on the other hand, countries with less-rich racing industries have long found it hard to establish races which attract the necessary quality of runners to qualify for Black Type. Essentially, for most race types, the average ratings of the first four finishers must be at least 100. Two years ago, the EMHF and EPC devised the Flagship Race scheme, under which countries with no Black Type races can apply for a single Flagship race to be given Black Type based on average ratings of the first four finishers being 5lbs lower than would normally be the case.  In simple terms, this means that trainers with horses up to 5lbs shy of normal Listed Race standard stand a reasonable chance of attaining black type when targeted at these races.

“There is a ripple effect which is of benefit to trainers,” Dr Khan points out. ”Other countries are looking to join the party, and in order to attract the necessary quality of entries - particularly from abroad – are ploughing money into their candidate races, and are often offering attractive travel incentives, too. Even if these races have not yet attained their Black Type status, they can still be immensely attractive propositions.”

Top of the list in this respect is Morocco’s Grand Prix de la Sorec. The 10th renewal of the Morocco International meeting will be held on the weekend of 16th and 17th November 2024 at the Casablanca-Anfa racecourse, a dirt track. This prestigious 14-race meeting plays a major role in promoting the Moroccan horseracing industry internationally and includes eight international races worth €1m  in total. Sunday is devoted to Purebred Arabians, with over €500,000 in prize money for the four Black Type races. 

Saturday is an all-thoroughbred card and of interest here is the feature €123,000 Grand Prix de la Sorec, 2400m (12f) for three-year-olds up. Entry is €600  by 31st October, free to declare. Also on the card is the €71,600 Grand Prix des Eleveurs for three-year-old fillies, over 1750m (8.75f) and the €61,600 Grand Prix des Proprietaires for three-year-old colts, over 1900m (9.5f). Casablanca-Anfa racecourse provides a children's area, entertainment and excellent facilities for visiting owners and trainers. The Cité du Cheval is the 87-hectare training centre on the outskirts of Casablanca, 15 minutes from Casablanca airport and 30 minutes from the racecourse, with 400 boxes, several training tracks, a farriery centre, two restaurants and a housing and catering area for staff.

International runners will have their flights, via the BBA, paid for, or up to €3,000 toward overland transport. Flights, hotel accommodation and all transfers are provided for two owners, the trainer and guest, and the jockey. Hospitality includes lunch at the racecourse on both days and dinner at the Gala Evening on Saturday.

As Dr Khan points out, “Another factor here is the ‘racing tourism’ element. The exotic location of these races provides an additional appeal for owners and trainers who want to soak up the fantastic experience of racing in different cultures.” 

Turkey

Turkey and its International festival on the first weekend of September at Veliefendi Racetrack, Istanbul, has for long been a popular destination, particularly for British trainers. Since Brexit, however, the issues involving a Third Country have deterred British runners, leaving the races more open for other European runners. What is instead happening is that two valuable €240,000 (£208,000) Group races have been wholly contested by locally-trained horses, the 2023 Bosphorus Cup attracting just five runners.

The International Bosphorus Cup has this year been downgraded to Group 3, but remains an attractive proposition. Run on turf over 2400m (12f), the €240,000 (£208,000) race is open to three-year-olds up. With the same prize money, the 1600m (8f) International Topkapi Trophy is another Group 3 for three-year-olds up that last year attracted no foreign runners. And the same applies to the fillies only Group 3 International Istanbul Trophy over 1600m (8f), worth €127,000 (£108,645).

Entry for the International meeting is by 2nd August, and a very generous travel subsidy is available to foreign runners, including $18,000 to horses arriving from the continents of America (North and South), Oceania, Africa and Far East countries. Up to €12,000 is available to European and UAE runners.

Sweden and Norway

Sweden’s 500-acre Bro Park has permanent stabling and training facilities, just over 30 minutes from the centre of Stockholm by car and a similar distance from Arlanda Airport. The two main international days are the Stockholm Cup day 15th September and the Stockholm Stora day 9th June, both branded as Super Sunday, during which the local 1000 and 2000 Guineas are also run. Run on turf at Bro Park, the Group 3 Stockholm Stora Pris is run over 1750m (8.75f) and worth €88,817 (£75,992), with a strong supporting card of the €29,309 (£25,000) Listed Bro Park Varsprint over 1200m (6f) and Listed Bloomers’ Vase 1600m (8f) for fillies, carrying the same value.

The Group 3 Stockholm Cup International over 2400m (12f) on turf carries prize money of €124,343 (£106,380) and the three supporting races each offer €58,619 (£50,151); the Listed Tattersalls Nickes Minneslöpning 1600m (8f) run on dirt, the Listed Bro Park Sprint Championship 1200m (6f) on turf, and the Listed Lanwades Stud Stakes 1600m (8f) on turf for fillies. Lanwades Stud also generously offers a free nomination to one of its stallions to the winner. The card also includes a 1400m (7f) two-year-old race on turf worth €36,859 (£31,534), the Svealandlopning. The other mentioned races are for three-year-olds up.

There are also interesting opportunities in Norway on Norsk Derby day 25th August at Oslo, as Director of Racing Liv Kristiansen tells us. ”Oslo offers a great range of both historic and modern hotels and restaurants and makes for a great long weekend with the Derby Day as a finale. The racecourse is just a 15-minute drive from the city centre and is home to most of the racehorses in Norway. On the day, there will be many runners from Denmark and Sweden as well.”

Kristiansen reminds us that it is prohibited to use the whip throughout all of Scandinavia, and in Norway jockeys are not allowed to carry a whip in races for three-year olds and older.

Germany

As an accompaniment to the familiar Pattern races in Germany, Deutscher Galopp Director of Racing Rüdiger Schmanns tells us, ”in general all races are open for foreign trained horses, even handicaps if the horses have a rating in the home country. We have good prize money options in handicaps on the so-called Premium Race Meetings, which are meetings on Sundays or Bank Holidays with at least a Group race on offer on that day. Handicaps of the best category are in total value of €20,000 (£17,103), the second best of €15,000 (£12,827), the third best of €10,000 (£8,551), and the lowest category of €8,000 (£6,841). At the Baden-Baden meetings there is usually one handicap of the day with higher prize money and in Bad Harzburg we have the so-called Super-Handicaps with exceptional prize money in the different categories, but they have an early closing stage at the beginning of April. Average prize money is the highest ever on offer in Germany at €14,200 (£12,143).”

France

Handicaps should also be on the radar in France, where France Galop is contributing heavily in the relaunch of the Quinté+ bet. As a result, the 13 Major Handicaps programme has been remodelled to restore appeal. Four Super Handicaps are now worth €100,000 (£85,519) and eight more have increased in value to €75,000 (£64139), with maximum runners raised to 20. The four €100,000 Super Handicaps cannot be on a Group 1 card and will be run on 7th April at ParisLongchamp 1400m (7f) four-year-olds up; 5th May ParisLongchamp 2000m (10f) four-year-olds up; 4th August Deauville 1600m (8f) three-year-olds up; and 8th September ParisLongchamp 1850m (9f) three-year-olds up.

The dates of the €75,000 Grands Handicaps, with a maximum of 18 runners, are 2nd June Chantilly 2400m (12f) four-year-olds up; 16th June Chantilly 1800m (9f) four-year-olds up; 15th August Deauville 1200m (6f) three-year-olds up; 18th August Deauville 1900m (9.5f) three-year-olds up; 5 October ParisLongchamp 1600m (8f) three-year-olds up; 5th October ParisLongchamp 2500m 12.5f) three-year-olds up; 6th October ParisLongchamp 1300m (6.5f) three-year-olds up; 6th October ParisLongchamp 2000m (10f) three-year-olds up.

Another shake-up comes in the reduction of entry fees for Group 1 races to revitalise entries, introducing a uniform entry price of 0.65% of prize value, with the exception of the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the Classic races. This lowers the entry fees for 15 Group 1 races, out of a total of 21. Trainers should note that entries have also been brought forward to earlier dates, now four weeks prior to the race.

Ireland

Horse Racing Ireland confirmed a record 395 fixtures for 2024, with an increase of €1.3m (£1.1m) in prize money, creating additional opportunities for horses at all levels. In addition, the final €1.4m (£1.2m) in capital schemes will be paid out for stableyard expansions (€0.3m) and racetrack and industry facility improvements (€1.1m), making it a more attractive proposal for visiting horses and team.

HRI, the Irish EBF and Gowran Park Racecourse have announced a significant boost to the three-year-old programme for middle-distance horses with a new Spring Series of median sires races, culminating in the €200,000 (£170,980) Irish Stallion Farms EBF Gowran Classic, 2000m (10f), the richest race ever held at the County Kilkenny course, on Bank Holiday Monday 3rd June. The race is designed to attract three-year-old middle-distance horses with a median price of no more than €75,000 (£64,121). The winner will receive an automatic free entry into the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby at the Curragh on 30th June. 

The series, with total prize money of €330,000 (£282,125), will consist of six races with a minimum prize-fund of €25,000 (£21,373) per race. The Curragh, Navan and Cork will host four maiden races between them, two for fillies only, and each of these races will be restricted to runners whose sires achieved a median price of not more than €50,000 (£42,747) in 2022. 

A median price of €75,000 (£64,121) will apply to runners in The Irish Stallions Farms EBF three-year-old Spring Series Race, with a value of €30,000 (£25,647) at Roscommon on 13 May. The same median price restriction will apply to runners in the €200,000 series Finale. 

Racecourse Manager Eddie Scally says, “Gowran Park are really excited to host the inaugural €200,000 Irish Stallion Farms EBF Gowran Classic, the region’s richest Flat race. This race will form part of an action-packed day both on and off the track with live music and a massive family fun day. We hope the Gowran Classic will attract all the top trainers and riders from both Ireland and abroad and see for themselves the warm Kilkenny welcome.”

Irish Stallion Farms EBF already sponsor two successful series for two-year-olds, the auction and median series with 27 races in each and a combined value of nearly €850,000 (£726,712). ”We felt it important to develop a similar series for later developing middle-distance three-year-olds,” says Irish EBF Chairman Joe Foley, ”hence the Spring Series was initiated with the Gowran Classic as its centrepiece. We look forward to seeing this three-year-old series grow and develop and are delighted to support Gowran Park racecourse in particular, who are investing heavily in their facilities.”

 Curragh-based trainer Willie McCreery points out, “These races are designed to be linked to the median price of the stallion, which allows everyone to participate. It offers great opportunities for middle-distance horses that needed a bit of time to mature and gives them a big target to aim at. The prize money along with the ‘win and you’re in’ to the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby is a super incentive.”

The new series consists of the 2000m (10f) €25,000 3yo Median Auction Maiden (Fillies) at the Curragh 6th April; 2000m (10f) €25,000 3yo Median Auction Maiden at Navan 9th April; the 2000m (10f) €25,000 3yo Median Auction Maiden at Navan 27th April; the 2000m (10f) €25,000 3yo Median Auction Maiden (Fillies) at Cork 10th May; the 2000m (10f) €30,000 3yo Median Auction Winners of 1 at Roscommon 30th May; and the Gowran Classic.

If tourism is the agenda, don’t forget Ireland’s only beach race meeting at Laytown, a small seaside resort just 46km (29 miles) from Dublin. The six-race card at Laytown races is held Monday 16th September 2024 with an average of €7,000 (£6,000) to the winner.

Britain

Last year saw the introduction of high value developmental races in Britain, a scheme the BHA has expanded for 2024. From 63, there are now 84 developmental races for the Flat season worth over €3.5m (£3m) in total prize money. The initiative has been made possible by British Stallion Studs (EBF), Juddmonte, Darley and Tattersalls, as well as the BHA Development Fund and is aimed at supporting the domestic breeding industry and encouraging the purchase of young talent in Britain. The races offer enhanced prize money to horses embarking on the early stages of their racing careers. 

Richard Wayman, Chief Operating Officer of the BHA, explains, “These races play a hugely important role within the race programme and yet, historically, it is an area where prize money has been behind our international competitors. It is essential that steps are taken to retain quality horses on our shores and with over 80 of these races scheduled for the coming season, this is one initiative that we believe will support this broader aim.”

The 2024 programme began with the Brocklesby Stakes at Doncaster on the opening day of the 2024 Turf season, one of 60 such races for two-year-olds. It comprises 32 Open Novice/Maiden races for two-year-olds, worth a minimum of €46,789 (£40,000); 29 Restricted Novice/Maiden races for two-year-olds, worth a minimum of €35,091 (£30,000); and 23 Open Novice/Maiden races for three-year-olds up, worth a minimum of €46,789 (£40,000).

“British Stallion Studs (EBF) are delighted to be a leading sponsor of the 2024 High Value Developmental Race programme, with a contribution of over €380,172 (£325,000), covering more than 30 races,” says Simon Sweeting, Chairman of British Stallion Studs (EBF). “One of the unique features of our prize money contributions is to encourage racecourses to ‘match-fund’; it is wonderful to see the model we pioneered and embedded, replicated by our fellow sponsors in these races.”

The EBF remains the leading sponsor of European racing and Kerry Murphy, European Breeders Fund CEO, points out, ”The EBF was set up over 40 years ago primarily to tackle the threat of less prize money in two-year-old maidens. With £3.5m total prize money and over 80 high value two-year-old and three-year-old races worth at least £30,000 from the end of March to October, there will be opportunities for all types. It is a great credit to all involved and, of course, all the British stallion farms that contribute to the EBF, and I hope will give owners and purchasers at the yearling sales plenty of incentives.” 

The full race list can be seen at:  

https://ebfstallions.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/2024-Development-Race-List-public.pdf

A 20-minute drive from Stansted Airport, Chelmsford City offers some tempting opportunities for runners from abroad. Not least is the Cardinal Condition Stakes on Saturday 6th April, a Class 2 race that is the last stop of the European Road to The Kentucky Derby, a “win and you’re in”. Run over a mile (1600m) and restricted to three-year-olds, the race is worth £100,000 (€116,953), with the winning horse receiving 30 points, ensuring a place at Churchill Downs. Second through to fifth place receive 12, 9, 6 and 3 points respectively.

“Last year Bold Act won for Charlie Appleby and he has since won a Grade 3 at Keeneland. The runner-up was the Archie Watson-trained Brave Emperor, who had won twice here as a two-year-old and he followed up with a Group 3 win in Germany next time out. Brave Emperor has since added three more Group wins and has just won the Irish Thoroughbred Marketing Cup, a local Group 2, at Doha. We are hopeful of seeing the Cardinal Condition Stakes upgraded to Listed status for next year, given the strength of the race,” says Neil Graham, Chelmsford City Racing Director.

Another imminent upgrade to hope for is the currently Listed Queen Charlotte Stakes over 7f (1400m) for fillies four-year-olds and up, run on Sunday 7th July, with prize money of £100,000 (€116,953). Graham points out, “Past winners include One Thousand Guineas heroine Billesdon Brook, Group 1 winner Highfield Princess and Soft Whisper, a subsequent Group 2 winner in Meydan. It comes a month before the Oak Tree Stakes at Goodwood and is good stepping stone, as Billesdon Brook showed. It is also Britain’s second-most valuable Listed race, behind only the Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot.”

The third of Chelmsford City’s feature races is the £80,000 (€93,595) Listed Chelmer Fillies Stakes over 6f (1200m) for three-year-old fillies, run Thursday 2nd May. “It’s a good option for the non-stayers and it’s a race that builds on quality year on year. Last year it was won by George Boughey’s Believing, who won a Group 3 at Chantilly on her next start,” says Graham.

“We work hard on promoting our feature races, which includes ensuring a high level of prize money, and we work closely with Adrian Beaumont at the International Racing Bureau to attract foreign runners. We look to offer travel incentives to runners from abroad and we consistently offer Class 6 prize money of £7,650 (€8,949) and £9,650 (€11,288) for Class 5 races, considerably more than any other All-Weather track in Britain. 

“We have 125 boxes built to the highest standard located in a quiet and secure yard, with ample room for parking and a fantastic team on hand. Paper or shavings are available.” 

“We are in the process of developing a Turf track for 2025 to open up further opportunities,” adds Graham, “and a month ago we were voted one of the Top 10 racecourses in Britain, which is a nice accolade to receive and a reflection of the excellent customer experience we offer.”

Overlooking the parade ring, the exclusive Owners and Trainers Bar provides a complimentary welcome drink and light refreshments. An additional facility for Owners and Trainers adjacent to the parade ring has a fully accessible glass-walled marquee and lawn, and there is also a dedicated viewing area in the main Grandstand, fully wheelchair accessible, for owners with runners on the day.

If it’s culture and tourism of most interest, a day at Ascot is always a highlight. This season, Ascot’s total prize money has risen to €20.4m (£17.5m) including Royal Ascot at €11.6m (£10m), with no Royal meeting race run for less than €128,688 (£110,000). Entry for Royal Ascot Group 1s is 30th April and for the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes 4th June.

Conditions for the Chesham Stakes (7f 2yo’s), traditionally run on the last day of the fixture, have been altered for 2024 - with horses no longer eligible to qualify via their dam’s performance. The race will return to a stallion only qualification as the race was prior to 2019 (sire must have won over 10f+).

Hannah Parlett, Owners and Trainers Manager, tells us, ”We have received an ROA Gold Standard again for our outstanding owners’ and trainers’ facilities here at Ascot, which include dining rooms overlooking the pre-parade ring in addition to a dedicated bar in the same area, along with a superb track facing facility. There are also two dedicated viewing areas.”  

Another ROA Gold Standard winner is Newbury, recognising Newbury’s continued efforts to enhance the on-course experience for owners. The OLBG Owners Club is close to the pre-parade ring beside the owners and trainers entrance. It is exclusively reserved for owners, with a private terrace. 

*Euro/Sterling rates Xe.com 07/03/2024

Emmet Mullins - the Irish National Hunt trainer who has had no shortage of success - a common trait in the Mullins clan!

Article by Daragh Ó Conchúir

Emmet Mullins possesses the sense of mischievousness that is common in many of the Mullins clan, and there are times when one wonders if it might be a contributory factor in his approach to training racehorses. Or at least his race planning.

We know from a significant sample of more than eight years as a trainer, that Mullins doesn’t throw darts without having given them due consideration. It’s just that his way of getting to the double is more Mensur Suljoviç than Michael van Gerwen. Convention is a constraint he sees no sense in burdening himself with.

So, it is not just plucking outlandish plans out of the ether. That would be idiotic and Mullins is no idiot. He is not unaware that he might be doing something others would not consider however, and when he delivers with an apparently off-kilter plot, he most definitely gets a kick out of it.

Examples of eschewing custom? Landing a listed three-year-old fillies’ hurdle race in Auteuil in 2019 with Fujimoto Flyer, acquired as a yearling on a trip to Japan two years previously. Scoring in a Grade 2 three-year-old hurdle race at the same venue last year with McTigue.

Winning a Grade 1 novice chase at Punchestown last April with Feronily, a horse having his second ever run over fences, just a month after shedding his maiden hurdle status, having been given his debut over both national hunt disciplines at graded level. That elite Punchestown triumph was less than five months removed from the Getaway gelding winning a point-to-point on his first ever public appearance at Rathcannon.

How about preparing ten-year-old The Shunter to bag the £103,080 first prize in the Cesarewitch at Newmarket last October? In March 2021, the same horse plundered a £100,000 bonus on offer for any winner of the Morebattle Hurdle that subsequently won at the Cheltenham Festival, doing so over fences in the Plate.

And then there’s capturing the Grand National with Noble Yeats in 2022, the first seven-year-old to be victorious in the Aintree feature since Bogskar, 82 years previously. And that came just 14 months after running in a bumper, 13 from obliging in his maiden hurdle. 

For the most part, these aren’t campaigns his uncle Willie would consider and he is the most successful trainer in jumps racing. That said, when it comes to campaigning internationally at least, Willie has been all over the world and taken a punt in places like Nakayama and Merrano, and his own father Paddy (Emmet’s grandfather) did it before him, winning the $750,000 Grabel International Hurdle at Dueling Grounds – now Kentucky Downs – in 1990.

So there is a bit of nature in the ambition, the refusal to be hemmed in by the norm. He’s even had a runner in an Irish Derby, legging up Rachael Blackmore on King Of The Throne in 2020. But certainly, he has taken pioneering thinking to another level. It is his oeuvre. It takes a lot of confidence but the self-assurance is well placed. The CV tells us the methods produce results at a sustained and very exalted level. 

For all that, and despite an average strike rate of around one in five over jumps in Ireland since he began in 2015, 28% over jumps in Britain over the same period (four from six at the time of writing this season alone) and a career high eight winners on the flat in Ireland this year (15% SR). Success for the Closutton 34-year-old – his 30 boxes are located at the HQ of his father, George’s equine transport business and next door to the gallops used by Uncle Willie to condition his legion of champions –is primarily about getting horses sold.

Sometimes they stay in the yard, which is the case if JP McManus gets involved as he has done on a number of occasions with The Shunter, Filey Bay, So Scottish, Corbett’s Cross and Feronily, and with Noble Yeats after the Waley-Cohens acquired the subsequent Grand National hero. 

Most of them don’t though, particularly the flat horses, with a global market. Of the jumpers, McTigue is one of the more recent to have been bought to race in America.

In an interview in last year’s Irish Racing Yearbook, Mullins said he wasn’t good enough to be a jockey, even though he was a Cheltenham Festival winner in the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Hurdle on Sir Des Champs for Willie in 2011. 

He won a graded novice chase on the same horse at Limerick the following December and then two years later at the same meeting, was entrusted with the responsibility of steering Faugheen around in a graded novice hurdle. But he couldn’t see himself having enough of those sorts of days.

“I didn’t want to be mediocre. Move on to the next thing and do better,” he explained in that feature.

So he retired at 24, just as his younger cousin David did, having won a Grand National as a teenager. They know their own minds, the Mullins boys.

That independent streak is evident in his second career. Being given the responsibility by Willie of travelling with Blackstairmountain to Japan and overseeing the eight-year-old’s preparations prior to landing the valuable Nakayama Grand Jump planted the seed for training, as well as leaving a very positive impression of racing in the land of the rising sun. 

He knew he wasn’t going to be champion trainer but given his disinterest in being a journeyman, resolved to operate commercially and improve the quality while he could. 

Making money on a horse is success in his eyes, as evidenced when in the aforementioned Irish Racing Yearbook feature, he posited that saddling a two-year-old to score in an auction maiden on the flat at Gowran Park was arguably his most important winner of a year that also included Noble Yeats’ Liverpool romp.

“Grand National prize money wouldn’t get you a deposit on a house,” he reasoned, referring to the filly’s subsequent sale.

Asked now to sum up his model, he uses one word initially.

“Flexible.”

That, as they say, is an understatement. 

“It was always to buy and to sell. Try and advertise your horse and sell it on for a profit. You’ve a lot of advantages with the surname Mullins but there’s a downfall with the selling part. I think most of the market would feel if Willie doesn’t buy it, it’s no good. That’s a drawback. It’s tricky.”

But it’s gone well. He would like to retain the calibre of horse, but it is not at the top of the list.

“I want the quality of the horses to be as high as possible but I don’t think I’ll ever go down the road of too many horses. I’m happy enough with the workload that I have. I went to Kentucky in September and October for the guts of five or six days each time, which you could never do if you had too many horses. There’s a good team at home but the bigger you get, no matter what systems you have in place, the more diluted it gets, I feel.”

As for being hands-on, he says: “I like to know, but I like to delegate. If I’ve all the right information I can make the decisions.”

He only rides work now when they are short of bodies, but is fortunate to have eight full-time staff, while his number one jockey, Donagh Meyler arrives three times a week.

He has just resurfaced a five-furlong gallop he had installed originally in 2018, and describes his method of conditioning as interval training. 

“All I know really is Willie outside the back door of our house. It’s all I’ve seen and it’s a good model to be working on.”

While the conditioning, fitness and schooling aspects are imperatives, they are useless without the raw material and it is here that Mullins seems to really deliver at an incredible level for a small-scale operation. He is very clear about what he is looking for when making acquisitions.

“When it comes to horses in training, it’s when they hit the line. There’s nothing worse than something tying up that might fall across the line and hold on to win. I would definitely be waiting for the horse in third that was too far back and flew home and ran through the line. I’d value him more than the horse that actually won but the market might consider the winner the best horse. There are plenty of different factors gone into where each horse was but horses that run through the line, there’s another day in them.

“With unraced horses, I suppose it’s a lucky dip but if they can’t walk, they can’t gallop. It’s all about the action. When you’re looking at horses that ran, the page is 90% irrelevant because they’ve either outrun their page or underrun it and there’s probably more underrun their page than outrun it. Once there’s black and white form, the page drops way down the list. But with unraced horses, it’s one of your only markers. You’ve got your conformation and pedigree and you haven’t much else to go on.”

Paul Byrne is a key investor, a friend of cousin Patrick (son of Willie), who clearly liked what Emmet Mullins was doing and whose light blue colours have become very recognisable on the likes of Feronily, Corbett’s Cross and The Shunter prior to their sales to McManus, as well as Slate Lane, among many others. Meyler is a key contributor too, obviously.

“We’re on the same wavelength I think,” he says of the experienced pilot. “Sometimes I mightn’t say much and I think I’ve said what needs to be said. If you’re not on the same wavelength, the jockey hasn’t got it. That’s my fault. It hasn’t been communicated the right way. With Donagh, we’re on the same wavelength and a facial expression could say as much as a word.

“McTigue in Auteuil, I walked the track with him [Meyler]. Don’t think he’d ridden there before. I’d won there with Fujimoto, had ridden there and we’d been watching Willie’s horses win there over the years. I told him how I would ride the race, and hurdle by hurdle it was just textbook, following the conversation we had the whole way around.

“Once we come out after getting the saddle, I ask him about the race. I might have my homework done but I want to see what he says first anyway. Nine times out of ten, we come up with a plan together. A few times, I throw a spanner in the works, like with Slate Lane in Haydock when I say, ‘We’re gonna make it today.’

“Donagh thought we’d be switching off as usual, down the paint, but I just thought there wasn’t much pace in the race so I said, ‘No. Line up wide. Go with them. If they’re going too hard, you can always sit in behind them. If you’re going too slow, you’ll get a freebie up front. It’s up to you to figure it out from then. I just wanted him to have those options rather than being locked in a pocket in behind if they were going too slow. But the main thing is we are on the same wavelength.”

When we speak, Slate Lane has just delivered on another target, his fourth consecutive triumph, bagging the £71,188 first prize of that premier handicap at Haydock he has referred to. It is bittersweet though as, barring a miraculous recovery from a very bad tendon injury suffered at some point during that race, he won’t compete again.

“I don’t know how he got to the line. Fifty per cent of the tendon is gone, into the tendon sheath and the big worry with that is infection. He’s in a cast now so as not to put the weight on it. The BHA vets were very good, flushed it out and gave him antibiotics on the racecourse and he went to Leahurst (Equine Hospital in Liverpool). It’s fairly certain he’ll never race again but it’s good news that he avoided the infection and saving the horse was the most important thing. With tendon sheaths it’s often 50-50 whether you’ll survive it because of the risk of infection.”

It is a reminder that even when things are going outstandingly well, in racing, above all other pursuits it seems, the leveller is just around the corner. Only the day before, Jeroboam Machin won a Fairyhouse bumper on debut. He too suffered a nasty cut on his tendon, a bigger one than suffered by Slate Lane but not as deep. It will sideline the youngster for some time and there is a double whammy in terms of a potential sale but he should hopefully return to the track at least. 

Some were talking up Slate Lane as a potential Stayers’ Hurdle candidate, cognisant of Mullins’ propensity to press fast forward with his neophytes but the intention had been to stay in novice company and to see just how far up the ladder the five-year-old son of Ask could go. 

He only had him six months, and though there were three underwhelming performances on the track for Paul Hennessy, the third had been an improved sixth in a two-mile Gowran Park maiden hurdle in March though that ended in disqualification when jockey Niall Prendergast weighed in incorrectly. That actually brought Mullins’ attention to him however, and when he delved a bit deeper to look at his third-place finish in a Moig South maiden point, the manner in which Slate Lane finished strongly was enough for him to press the button.

“He flew home. I know he finished third but he was the horse to buy out of the race. There were no hiccups from then. We were probably on the mark after Newton Abbot but it was 75 days out to the race. As it transpired, the race didn’t fill and he’d only have been a pound or two out off 113 but you couldn’t take that risk and you’d have been longer again out. So in between Newton Abbot and Haydock, we took in the (Corinthian Challenge) charity race at Leopardstown (which he won) to keep him ticking over. Michael O’Neill, who won on him, comes in to ride work for us a good bit.

“Haydock wasn’t mentioned until after Cartmel but first, it was Cartmel for the sticky toffee pudding. That was the big draw! As soon as he crossed the line - it was a 2m6f maiden hurdle - we said, ‘Big pot, three miles, Haydock, November’. I had a runner in it once (2021), Righplacerighttime. I tend not to forget where the money is!

“We couldn’t enter him in Irish handicaps because if you ran him in Ireland, the English handicapper has his own interpretation so we campaigned him exclusively in England over hurdles to keep on their handicap system and we wouldn’t be guessing about what rating we’d have.

“He was working well when we decided to go for the maiden hurdle. We thought he’d win and he kept improving the whole time and he had to. The same horse that won in Haydock, wouldn’t have come off the bridle in the Cartmel race and he came off it on the home bend and had to be scrubbed against a 78-rated horse. So he’s clearly improved. He wasn’t a 127-rated horse. It has been a natural progression.”

Using a charity race to keep him ticking over is unconventional, to say the least, but Mullins readily concedes that “we don’t do much normal”. The outside-the-box planning seems like genius given how often it comes off.

“You’re just looking for those niches. It was 2017 I think I went to those yearling sales in Japan... They are, I would say, on top of the world now with their system, their tiered racing, their midweek racing and their weekend racing, the prize money. It’s ten years this year since I was at the Japan Cup and the racing fraternity were like the Premier League stars. The following was phenomenal.

“I bought Fujimoto Flyer. Another foal I bought privately over there was Crowns Major (owned by long-time patron Annette Mee, who provided him with his first winner St Stephen’s Green). He won the big premier handicap at Galway (in 2021) with Wesley Joyce. Now, the third, I sold to Poland or the Czech Republic fairly quickly after but two out of three isn’t bad.”

No other trainer around would have campaigned Feronily like he did and that they picked him up for just £45,000 at Cheltenham, five days after cantering to victory under Derek O’Connor in his point-to-point was a fantastic start.

“It’s funny, on the day of the sale, I was going over thinking he was the best horse in the sale. Told the clients, ‘Couple of hundred thousand, this is the real deal.’ I hadn’t seen him but looked at the vet report on the phone, saw the video of the race but the rumour machine was going around that he had bad tendons. Two vets were after standing over him and cleared him! I spoke with Ellmarie Holden who won the point-to-point with him. They’d scanned the tendons at home, they showed me them, it was perfect.

“Paul was beside me and I says, ‘We’re buying the next one in.’ He says, ‘What is it?’ I says, ‘You’ll see when you sign for it.’ There were a few mates of his with us and I said to them, ‘Put up your hand now. We’re gone past the reserve and you’ll get him on the next one.’ One of the guys bid, so we got him. They didn’t know what was after happening. I was giggling away and Tattersalls had the buyers as Hughes, Smith and Stokes - three friends of Paul’s!

“He’d won ten lengths. He’d a big advantage going to the last. Popped it. Lost all the ground. Derek sat down on his back and he took off and went again. And you don’t go a second time unless you’ve got a big engine and he galloped through the line after losing all momentum. It was a no-brainer.”

Okay, buying him was, but you cannot tell me the subsequent course of action was obvious.

“It was Paul that wanted to go to Kelso after two good bumper runs (second to Isle Atlantique and third to A Dream To Share). He didn’t run too bad (finishing fourth) because it was a graded handicap on his first start over hurdles. We got the maiden hurdle in Limerick out of the way. I think the entries for Punchestown were closing after that and I don’t know why, but I just thought that the three-mile novice chase division was vulnerable. Stuck him in, then rang Paul and told him, ‘I might have done something crazy again.’ When the entries came out then he said, ‘That wasn’t one of your worst ideas.’

“We got the run into him in Cork (in a Grade 3 chase). We didn’t want to run in a beginner’s chase because if he won, he wasn’t a novice the following season. So you wanted it to be justifiable to lose it. If we won, well and good, if not, you had the experience. He ran very nicely in second and it was on to Punchestown from that.”

Sometimes things just fall into place. The Shunter was slated for a major staying handicap from the time he won his maiden in Sligo in May 2022.

“He wasn’t right for the Irish Cesarewitch and for luck, he went to Newmarket. The extra two weeks probably helped and it rained then as well.

“It was Paul that had spotted the bonus with the Morebattle. He had won the Greatwood already. You can’t be expecting him to be that far ahead of the handicapper to win three premier handicap hurdles so that’s why we had to take up the chase option in Cheltenham after he won the Morebattle. He probably wouldn’t have run over fences at all, he was still in a 0-116 bracket and there was a beginners’ chase at Punchestown for horses rated 116 or less over hurdles. I said to Paul we probably wouldn’t win a beginners’ chase in a month’s time when Willie and Gordon (Elliott) had their horses out and 140 horses were getting beaten in beginners’ chase. That opened that possibility for us. So it wasn’t that we were planning hurdles and fences with the Morebattle and Cheltenham. With that one, it just panned out that we had somehow done the right thing.

“He’ll get a break now and maybe come back for the Chester Cup. He’s an older horse, he’s had plenty of issues and I’d say his jumping days might be behind him.”

Corbett’s Cross is moving the right way and a return for one of the Grade 1 novice chases at Cheltenham is a more straightforward plan.

Noble Yeats is likely to miss the Gold Cup this time around, having finished fourth last year before filling the same position in his bid to go back-to-back in the National.

“I think we found a little race for him to start back over hurdles at Christmas. It’ll be a start. He had a tough year last year. Gold Cup, Grand National, Grand Steep de Paris. He had an extended break and didn’t come back to me till the first of October. At the moment it’s the National. I don’t think we can do both. He won’t be helped by being so consistent in his races, with his handicap mark and plenty of weight but as they say, horses for courses and he definitely has Aintree sussed.

“He’s a funny horse in that he needs a hood or ear plugs for the preliminaries, but when he’s going he needs cheekpieces. There’s no other horse you’d do it with. It’s just figuring them out.”

Just another element of the job Emmet Mullins seems to be very good at.