Willie Mullins Enters ‘100 Club’ at 2024 Cheltenham Festival

67-year-old horse racing trainer, Willie Mullins, has joined his own exclusive ‘100 Club’ at the Cheltenham Festival after landing over 100 winners at the so-called ‘World Cup of jump racing’. The 17-time National Hunt Champion trainer smashed the 100-winner benchmark at this year’s festival in some style.

Mullins landed his 100th festival winner in the Champion Bumper, with son, Patrick Mullins, on board Jasmin De Vaux to steer Mullins to his 13th Champion Bumper success. It’s been almost three decades since Mullins won his first race as a trainer at the Cheltenham Festival. Tourist Attraction got him off the mark in the Supreme Novices’ Chase and the Closutton-based trainer has never looked back since.

Mullins has been considered one of the top trainers at Cheltenham for some time now, surpassing the likes of Nicky Henderson and fellow compatriot, Gordon Elliott, as having the most feared stable. In terms of yard care and custody, there are few better in the game than Mullins either.

Prior to this year’s festival, Mullins had a tally of 94 Cheltenham Festival wins, some 21 greater than his long-time rival, Henderson. By the end of the 2024 festival, Mullins had increased his figure to 103 victories.

The finest Mullins-trained winners in Cheltenham Festival history

● Al Boum Photo
You don’t win back-to-back Cheltenham Gold Cups without being an iconic Willie Mullins horse. Al Boum Photo was by no means an elite hurdler, but he found his best for the festival. He narrowly missed out on a hat-trick of Gold Cups in 2021, finishing a close third.

● Galopin Des Champs
Galopin Des Champs won the Martin Pipe in 2021 and had another race in the bag at the 2022 festival as a novice before tipping up with a handsome lead. Mullins dusted him down after that disappointment and primed him for a bold bid at the Gold Cup in 2023 – a bid which would prove successful.

● Vautour
Many people with close connections to the Mullins yard would argue that Vautour was one of his finest pound-for-pound horses at Cheltenham. He won the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in 2014 by six lengths, before backing that up in the Novices’ Chase the following year. He stormed to victory in the Ryanair Chase in 2016 too, which saw most within the sport sit up and take notice.

● Hurricane Fly
Winner of the 2011 and 2013 Champion Hurdle, Hurricane Fly had a reputation as a Listed winner in flat racing. He went on to become the first horse to ever win the Champion Hurdle, failing to defend it, before regaining his crown.

Willie Mullins Enters ‘100 Club’ at 2024 Cheltenham Festival

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