'He will be some beast next season' - Willie Mullins dreaming big for Majborough after Triumph success

After his fourth winner of the week, I asked JP McManus whether the current green and gold team was the best he had had. He stalled for a second, then smiled and said: "I'm not complaining anyway!" You bet he's not. 

Majborough was the latest one to hit the back of the net, outstaying Kargese on the long, punishing, uphill climb to the line in attritional conditions to give Willie Mullins his third Triumph Hurdle on the trot, his fourth in five years and his fifth overall. 

Majborough is very different from those who have gone before. Lossiemouth is a slick, sexy, quick hurdler who will give Constitution Hill and State Man headaches next season; Vauban was favourite for the Melbourne Cup last year and is set for another Flat campaign this summer, while Burning Victory and Scolardy never jumped a fence in their lives. 

The latest juvenile gem from Closutton most certainly will and Mullins sees him as a future Gold Cup contender. In his pre-season stable tour in the Racing Post in November, he was already stargazing towards the 2026 Gold Cup, you sensed, as he said: "He could be a top chaser down the line."

He confirmed himself to be the top Irish juvenile hurdler here. Whether or not he is the best four-year-old on either side of the Irish Sea remains debatable, though, as the unbeaten Sir Gino didn't show up after being one of the victims of a mystery malady at Nicky Henderson's Seven Barrows yard. 

It looked as though Kargese would be the one to take full advantage of Sir Gino's absence most of the way as she sauntered to the front on the home turn under Danny Mullins, but it was like little and large coming up the straight and, on this ground, size mattered. 

Winning connections of JCB Triumph Hurdle winner MajboroughCredit: Patrick McCann

Majborough was the bigger and braver animal. The pair pulled clear of everything from the home turn, with Salver doing best of the rest for the British in third. 

Mullins, who saw Racing TV's Lydia Hislop coming towards him, joked: "I missed you yesterday!" Thursday was a rare blank festival day for the most dominant jumps trainer the game has seen. We don't usually get two of those. 

"He’s a chaser, isn’t he?" said Mullins of Majborough. "When he came into the yard and they said he was our Triumph Hurdle horse, I couldn't believe it. I said I thought he looked like a Gold Cup horse, a three-mile chaser. He’s very ‘trained’ at the moment; a bit angular, like all the French horses, but when he comes in from a summer’s grass, he will be some beast."

And, that is coming from the man who knows a thing or two about beasts. 

Mullins added:  "This horse is so untypical of what a Triumph Hurdle horse is, and has a big jumping pedigree, but when we started to work him, he gallops more than has speed, and Danny [Mullins, on Kargese] had him caught for speed coming round the last bend, but when Mark got off him the last day, he said, 'This fella jumps and gallops'. 

"His intention today was to make it, so it shows how fast the pace was that they were fifth or sixth the whole way. Then, when Danny went on, I could see Mark still winding him up, and he went for one jump at the last and got that jump and just ground it out, as Mark said he would."

On next season, he said: "He may well go novice chasing next season, although I don’t really like doing that with a horse so young, so we’ll see."

Willie Mullins and JP McManus after Majborough's win in the Triumph HurdleCredit: Patrick McCann

Mark Walsh agreed with Mullins in thinking Majborough's best days are ahead of him. 

The winning jockey said: "He’s not your typical juvenile hurdler, he’s a big chaser. He’s such a big four-year-old and so strong. He was a little bit keen in my hands early, but we went a good enough gallop and I was just happy to sit and get a lead for as long as I could. The last day in Leopardstown, I thought I should have gone quicker, but we were going quick enough today.

"Danny came up outside me into the straight and I was delighted because then he had something to aim at going to the last, and he ground it out well."

He sure did grind, and Mullins on the runner-up had no excuses. 

He said of Kargese: "She travelled well and I was able to keep hanging on to her a bit. Mark’s horse hit a flat spot, then kept going late on, but mine was good and tough to gallop all the way to the line. 

"There was never a moment when I felt I had everything covered. It’s a long way up that hill and you’re never home until you’re home in Cheltenham on the New course."

You certainly aren't and it would have taken something special to beat Majborough home. 

Read this next:

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