Willie Mullins spends £336,000 on horse ‘whose plan is to win at Cheltenham and Royal Ascot’
WILL he leave anyone else with a chance?
All-conquering Willie Mullins is set to target the Flat even more after spending £336,000 on a ‘gorgeous’ horse who could ‘win at Cheltenham and Royal Ascot’.
No wonder the Closutton was putting up job adverts on Twitter earlier this week.
The best National Hunt trainer possibly ever has been busy spending mega sums during the summer sales.
But perhaps none has got him more excited than the recent purchase of Ethical Diamond at the Tattersalls July Sale.
The three-year-old son of Awtaad won his last race – his third career start – over a mile and a half at Limerick last month.
But Mullins and his money man Harold Kirk believe there is a hell of a lot more to come.
And Kirk told the Racing Post his dream is to have a horse who wins at March’s Cheltenham before going onto claim a huge prize at Royal Ascot in June.
He said: “He’ll run over hurdles and can hopefully be a good staying Flat horse too.
“He’s a young horse as he’s only had three runs and he’s improved each time. He’s a gorgeous horse.
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“Hopefully he could be a Cup horse on the Flat one day.
“Maybe one day he’ll take us to Cheltenham and another day to Royal Ascot, that’s the plan.
“During those Covid years we kind of missed out buying those dual-purpose types, even though we had a Royal Ascot winner this year, so we want to build that up again.”
Vauban came close to that this year.
The former Triumph Hurdle winner was fourth in the Champion Hurdle – but never really had a chance behind the monstrous Constitution Hill.
However, he fully exploited his Flat mark when bolting up in the Copper Horse at Royal Ascot for owner Rich Ricci.
A Melbourne Cup campaign – where victory is worth £2.3million – is now the plan for a horse emblematic of how Mullins wants to take over the Flat now he’s conquered the jumps.
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