I’d love to ride Gaelic Warrior in the Gold Cup, says Patrick Mullins

Patrick Mullins has nominated Gaelic Warrior as the one horse he would love to ride at next month’s Cheltenham Festival – and hopes he is given the green light to line up in the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup.

The record-breaking amateur steered the top-class eight-year-old to win the Aintree Bowl last year and was also on board when he filled the runner-up spot behind stablemate Fact To File in the Irish Gold Cup at Leopardstown on his latest appearance.

Trainer Willie Mullins has a strong hand for the blue riband, with Fact To File in line to be supplemented and dual Gold Cup hero Galopin Des Champs still very much in the mix, which could lead to Gaelic Warrior dropping back in trip for the Ryanair Chase.

However, having claimed Grand National glory on Nick Rockett last April, Mullins junior would love to add a Gold Cup to his burgeoning CV – and in Gaelic Warrior he feels he has the perfect potential partner.

He said: “I’d love to ride Gaelic Warrior in the Gold Cup. My vote would put him in the race, but I don’t know how important my vote is!

“When you look at Kempton (close third in the King George VI Chase) and Aintree, where he ran very well both times, and then you look at the Cheltenham Gold Cup course, all of them have a constant inside running rail. You also have that strip of fresh ground for Gold Cup day, so every race is very tight and that is how you could get him to settle.

“At Leopardstown there is no inside running rail, horses are spread out all over the course and he gets a bit lit up. I don’t think that was the difference between winning and losing in the Irish Gold Cup, but I think his form outside Leopardstown is considerably better than his form in Leopardstown and I think he could turn that form around with Fact To File.”

Sam Waley-Cohen is the only amateur to win National Hunt racing’s two most prestigious prizes, landing the Gold Cup on Long Run in 2011 before claiming Grand National glory with Noble Yeats on his final ride before retirement in 2022.

Mullins added: “If I could choose one the Grand National would be the one, because of the history, but Sam won both so we’ll try to match him. I think the track layout (at Cheltenham) and the way the race will pan out means you could park Gaelic Warrior in a pocket with no daylight and get him to settle – I think that will show him in a better light.

“He obviously won the Arkle and I do think the softer the ground the better for him. I don’t have any worries about the track, but I do think the softer the ground the better for him.

“You don’t know if they’ll stay the Gold Cup trip until you try, but I thought in Leopardstown after running a little keen he picked up all the way from the second-last to the line and pulled eight and a half lengths clear of Galopin Des Champs.”

Another quandary for the Mullins team is where to run star mare Lossiemouth.

Having won the Mares’ Hurdle in each of the past two seasons, the grey was this year expected to take on the boys in the Champion Hurdle, but defeat at the hands of Brighterdaysahead in the Irish Champion Hurdle has again muddied the waters.

“Is she at her best at two and a half miles? Yes. Could she won the Champion Hurdle this year? She could,” Mullins continued.

“She’s ran four times against Champion Hurdle type horses and won once, so that’s in the back of your head.

“Three of her four defeats have been at the DRF (Dublin Racing Festival), so perhaps she’s not at her best there, I don’t really know why. I don’t think she turned up in the Irish Champion Hurdle for some reason, it looked like the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton all over again.

“For me it’s not a foregone conclusion either way. We don’t have State Man there and last year there was no doubt in our minds that State Man was a superior horse full stop, but not having those other Champion Hurdle horses there…”