The National Hunt Trainers Championship went down to the final day of the season, but despite the drama, there was a very familiar man holding the trophy at the end of it all.
Willie Mullins would retain his title, throwing everything at it in the final weeks of the season, after his Grand National win at Aintree at the start of the month.
Since then, there’s been plenty of interest and talk around the championship, including my piece last week, wondering whether Mullins v Skelton is good for racing, and what impact it has on those below missing out.
But you can’t deny Mullins one thing, and that’s the sheer power and strength in numbers he has right now, when needed, they came good and took him past Dan Skelton.
Late Mullins Charge Enough for Glory
Bizarrely, Willie Mullins did not lead the trainer’s championship race until the final day, and it wasn’t until just after 3 pm that he actually took the lead on the day. But he timed things to perfection, sent enough runners to Sandown and took charge.
While I may not be the biggest Dan Skelton fan, I do feel a little sorry for him. He’s not lost out by being second best, but he’s also not lost because he’s failed to have enough winners. It’s purely a numbers game, and it’s where the Mullins horses have turned up.
Dan has dug deep, run plenty of horses when he normally wouldn’t, and gone up and down the country to win prize money. But when you’ve got multiple Mullins runners being thrown into races that have far bigger prize money attached, it becomes a numbers game, and one that the Irish handler is in full control of.
Take the Bet365 Gold Cup for example, one of Saturday’s big pots, where Mullins ran 10 in the race. Not only that, but he was able to manipulate the weights to push many out of the handicap, including the sole Skelton runner.
Now, Mullins didn’t actually win the race, resplendent grey landed the feature, but his strength in depth scooped up prize money from 2nd to 5th, and the way in which the handicap fell, left the Skelton runner quite a way out of the handicap.
In the end, the final scores left Mullins almost £200,000 in front of Skelton in the standings, that’s despite the Englishman beginning the day with a £68,00 lead.
But 21 runners for Mullins, compared to nine for Skelton, there was only going to be one outcome, really, according to the numbers told in the end.
The turning point of the race was the Grand National, giving Willie Mullins the impetus to fight on, and put many of his runners into UK races, in a bid to retain the crown he won 12 months ago.
Where this goes next year remains to be seen, I do think Dan Skelton is incredibly close to winning the title, though, it’s only a matter of time, and next year could be his year.
