Mullins ducks and dives - he rarely runs his top horses against each other

Well, that was another explosive week in the world of racing! It started with Gordon Elliott putting the cat among the pigeons by suggesting that British jump racing is suffering because trainers “can duck and dive each other the whole time”. I found that a little bit rich.

Surely the biggest ducker and diver of the lot is Willie Mullins. Just take a look at the way he approaches the Cheltenham Festival. He rarely runs his top horses against each other and definitely ducked and dived with his best novice hurdler Sir Gerhard at the fixture last season.

Plenty of top judges, including our very own Pricewise Tom Segal, thought Sir Gerhard was all speed and would be ideally suited by the Supreme. Segal even wrote: “Hopefully Willie Mullins will see sense and run his best and fastest novice in the Supreme. If he does, Constitution Hill will have to be all he’s cracked up to be and more to beat him.”