Tony Mullins hails brother Willie 'supreme artist' after Cesarewitch defeat

Less than 24 hours after being denied the biggest pot of his training career by his brother and champion trainer Willie Mullins in the Cesarewitch at Newmarket, Tony Mullins could be described as nothing other than magnanimous in defeat.

“Isn't it better him beating me than someone else, I don't know?” came the Cheltenham Festival-winning trainer’s response when asked to sum up how it felt to see Party Playboy denied by Stratum in the £350,000 showpiece.

No hard feelings in this corner. In fact, nothing but pure admiration for Ireland’s dominant force from the man who knows him better than most.

“Willie is different league when it comes to training these sort of horses,” Tony Mullins said.

“When I was looking at the race, I looked at what Willie was running and what Mark Johnston was running as, for me, they're the best men to train for those races beyond a mile and six.”

He added: “Willie has proven many, many times that he's one of the greatest trainers of all time. He's a supreme artist at getting horses to an elite level of fitness. He's won many a big race with horses who weren't the best horse in the race, purely because of his training ability.

“It's not that he's going to the sales and giving €3 million for the Galileos, he's just a supreme trainer.”

Stratum edges out Party Playboy (purple) in the CesarewitchCredit: Mark Cranham

Mullins may not have left Newmarket a winner on Saturday but Party Playboy, sent to post a 50-1 shot, enhanced his reputation with a gallant run in defeat.

That could tee up the five-year-old, who is remarkably still a maiden on the Flat, for a tilt at an even more valuable handicap in Saudi Arabia in February, according to Mullins.

He said: “I felt we were going there with a serious chance. I was a little surprised by how well he ran but we weren't just going there for a trip to England.

“We're looking at a race in Saudi Arabia in February. It's a $2m handicap over two miles. We'll only be rated in and around the 90 mark, and whether they let in a horse with that sort of rating or not, I'm not sure.

"There could be an opening as seemingly there are some quarantine problems over there and there are no southern-hemisphere horses taking part, so it might be our chance.”

Mullins added: “The other route we could go down is to try to qualify for the Pertemps or the Coral Cup at Cheltenham. If we were to go down that road we'd need to win at Leopardstown over Christmas. They'd be the two options.”

Tony Mullins, who is enjoying something of a resurgence this season after a few barren years, missed the chance to have a post-race debrief with his brother after arriving back in Ireland late on Saturday night but he was planning on belated celebrations on Sunday evening.

"My plane got delayed and the plan was to meet in the Lord Bagenal but I wasn't home until 1am," Tony Mullins added. "It wouldn't have always been too late for me in the past, but I'm getting older now. We'll have a few pints tonight.”

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