The scale of Willie Mullins’s potential dominance at next month’s Cheltenham festival has been underlined by one firm offering just 16-1 about Ireland’s champion trainer saddling 10 or more winners at National Hunt racing’s greatest meeting.
Nicky Henderson is the most successful trainer in Cheltenham history with 51 winners, and holds the record for most wins at a single festival with his 2012 tally of seven. Since then, though, Mullins has been leading trainer at the festival with five winners in 2013 and four more last year.
Ante-post markets
However, the overwhelming influence of Ireland’s top trainer at the top of the ante-post markets for many of the festival races is reflected in the RaceBets firm offering just 16-1 about Mullins saddling 10 or more winners in 2015, while they reckon it is just 4-7 about him scoring up to five.
"Willie looks as if he could have his most successful week ever at Cheltenham, and looks to have some fantastic ammunition, particularly on the first day," said the RaceBets spokesman Joseph Burke.
Day one
In some lists Mullins has the favourite or joint-favourite in six of the seven races on day one of the festival, including the odds-on Arkle favourite Un De Sceaux as well as Faugheen (Champion Hurdle) and Annie Power (OLBG Hurdle) who are evens to win.
Douvan (Supreme Novices Hurdle) is another Mullins hotpot, while Don Poli has the National Hunt Chase option as well as the RSA. Blood Cotil is as low as 12-1 in some lists for the Rewards4Racing Novices Handicap Chase, the final event on day one.
Other current favourites for Mullins in the week include Vautour (JLT) and Black Hercules (Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle), while A Quart Du Tour is an 8-1 market leader for what is historically Mullins’s most successful festival event, the Weathebys Champion Bumper.
