Mullins counts his lucky stars as Princess Zoe fires him back into the big time

Good fortune goes by the household name of luck and Tony Mullins needed a heavy sprinkling of the stuff to bag the feature Connacht Hotel qualified riders’ handicap at Galway on Monday with Princess Zoe.

Not only did the gaps appear when they needed to for Princess Zoe during the 2m1f race, a notoriously tricky contest to predict the winner of down the years, but there was a certain amount of luck involved in the mare touching down in Mullins’ yard to begin with.

Sporting the colours of Paddy Keogh, who has a long, fruitful relationship with the trainer, Princess Zoe became the second mare in succession to win the race following on from Great White Shark’s heroics for brother Willie 12 months ago.