THERE’S an old trick quiz question – what great sporting achievement of the ‘90s began on Wall Street?

We’ll try a more recent Irish version for this season: what great racing achievement began at 8.22pm on a May evening in Ballinrobe?

To begin Willie Mullins’ record breaking season, Readin Tommy Wrong passed the post that evening under Jody Townend in the Jennings Meats Flat Race at the Mayo track, just two days into the new season.

There is something noteworthy in the fact that the Mullins season began with a future Grade 1 horse winning in the summer. Dual Grade 1 winner Mystical Power’s first win also came at a summer fixture at Galway. It is a reflection that the stable never takes an eye off the ball. Both those wins were for two of the Mullins stable’s biggest owners, ready to go in the ‘off’ season.

And as the season came to a climax, and the British trainers’ title came within grasp, it was two different sets of owners, Gallagher Bloodstock Limited and the Bobbett family who then stepped into the limelight and enjoyed big success. That was the notable feature again from the Closutton yard, if you go in, you can expect success at any level.

Ruby Walsh noted it in a Racing TV interview on Saturday. “I think he’s a standard setter. The way he spends his owners’ money, the calibre of horses he buys. How he spends his money....

“It’s, ‘this horse is going to tell me when it’s ready to run and tell me what level of race it can win’.”

Daunting

And while the Mullins stable set the records this NH season, the final table of top trainers can be quite daunting to look at. Only six trainers trained more than 20 winners – Mullins, Elliott, de Bromhead, Cromwell, Rothwell, and O’Brien. Gordon Elliott had over 1,200 runners.

But this week should give us hope. Punchestown, our signature National Hunt meeting, gave cause for encouragement that there is still a niche for any trainer – given the right horse. J.P. McManus, Sean Mulryan and Isaac Souede and Simon Munir trusted potential Grade 1 horses to Jimmy Mangan, Martin Brassil and Tom Gibney, in the expectation they too could get the job done and match Mullins.

Jimmy Mangan trained five winners but has one for the most exciting young horses in the game. And at the other end of the spectrum, Anthony McCann’s team found a potential star for £4,000.

And while horses now race less, let’s not forget a veteran 11-year-old gelding of 56 races. Harry Rogers trained only one jumps winner, but Lord Erskine’s win at the Dublin Racing Festival was another feel-good highlight of the jumps season. Yes, Willie’s taking titles, but Jimmy’s winning races too, and the biggest prize of all is in sight. Long may it give heart to us all.

Kentucky still serves up the dream

THERE is always excitement in seeing the reappearance in a classic of an outstanding two-year-old, and all eyes will be on City Of Troy at Newmarket today. Unlike Auguste Rodin last season, there appear no unlikely obstacles like travel restrictions and ground conditions to overcome.

Another famous contest takes place in Kentucky late tonight and it presents an even bigger spectacle. While the 2000 Guineas is generally at the mercy of the big, long-established racing owners, the recent winners of the Kentucky Derby came from many random paths.

US racing needs some stars to keep it in favour with the public.

The Derby never fails in the potential to bring all sorts to the bar. You could never foresee winners like Mind That Bird or Rich Strike in Britain.

This year, compare Sierra Leone (Gun Runner), consigned by Gainesway at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearlings sale in August 2022 and bought by White Birch Farm and M. V. Magnier for $2,300,000 with West Saratoga (Exaggerator), consigned by Hidden Brook, sold to owner Harry Veruchi for $11,000 at the Keeneland September Sale. And compare and contrast trainers D Wayne Lukas, Chad Brown and Larry Demeritte.

The favourite Fierceness was given little chance when drawn 17, star horses Arazi and Point Given were some of its causalities from that gate over a 30-year span of defeats. Out came Encino, Fierceness moves in two yards and now he’s back in the picture in stall 16, the pundits tell us.

Sierra Leone comes from the back, but is in the thick of the dirt from stall two, and the pre-race antics from last time when he was difficult to load are concerning.

Dettori and Irish interest

There is more European interest than in many years. Frankie Dettori, more frequently on the blue-bred favourite in European classics, is on a gelding who cost $85,000 and is drawn 19 on the wide outside, a new experience for the Italian.

Just Steel represents the dynamics of modern flat racing, and in the charge of America’s most famous trainer D Wayne Lukas. By US Triple Crown winner Justify, his dam Irish Lights (Fastnet Rock) won the Group 1 Schweppes Thousand Guineas at Caulfield in 2009.

Irish interest comes from Ben Curtis, given a squeak by many on Honor Marie, and Meathman John Ennis, another potential rags to riches story, getting into the classic in the last days with his runner Epic Ride.

AWAY from the jumps season finale and looking forward to Royal Ascot, the new set of adverts promoting the famed June meeting caught a bit of attention on social media this week.

Some thought they were ridiculous, while others later suggested all the outcry was a bit daft, that ‘most people don’t go to Royal Ascot for the horses’.

For all that the advert is eye-catching, I still find it rather odd that you advertise one of the summer highlights in the racing world suggesting ‘Today I can be picking cabbages on the allotment, tomorrow I can be dressed to the nines at Royal Ascot!’