THEY say it takes all sorts. In the racing game, more than most.

Tony Mullins has been buying horses from Germany for a while. They tend to be a bit cheaper over there and, by and large, most can gallop away through soft ground. They can be tough, hardy horses.

Tony purchased Party Playboy from Germany and he very nearly won a first prize pot of £217,000 with him, when he got touched off in last year’s Cesarewitch by his brother Willie’s horse Stratum.

Last year, Tony went shopping in Germany again to buy another horse for his long-time ally and patron Paddy Kehoe.

But he admits he got a nasty shock when the grey filly took her first steps off the lorry from Germany into his yard.

Mullins tells the story: “From the first day that we worked her, we always thought that she was good enough but, if I’m honest, I still dread the day that she landed here from Germany.

“She had been based in the old East Germany, in Dresden, and it’s a difficult place to get to. So, when I saw where she was based, I said that I’d take a chance with just the vet’s cert. I looked at her form and she looked a nice filly on the videos that I saw of her running over there. The filly vetted fine, and they told us that she didn’t have the best of conformation on her front legs, so I was aware of that, but when she arrived here, I nearly had a heart attack.

“Lots of things went through my head, but we had paid for her and we had to make do with her. I have to give a huge amount of credit to our blacksmith Mick Corrway.

“It took months of hoof growth and the farrier did a great job with her. It has certainly helped her, and we train her on deep sea sand and that surface rejuvenated Red Rum, who also had foot problems.

“Red Rum was a good horse and was second in a Hennessy Gold Cup before he won the National, but when he went to Ginger McCain, he trained him on the sand by the sea and the salt water was a huge help to him. He had hoof problems, and everyone seemed to think that it helped him. Our sand gallop, together with soft ground that we have here, has really helped our mare.

“Looking back, I wasn’t excited when she walked off the box, but from the first day that we worked her, we knew that we had something pretty special – especially for a yard like ours. Now whether she is up to mixing it in pattern company on the flat remains to be seen, but we have always felt that she was above average.

“She still has to come out of handicap company, but to her credit she has improved from 64 to 101 in the space of a few weeks. We’ll just have to see how she fares in the listed race at Galway next week. If that went smoothly, we’ll consider the Prix du Cadran at Longchamp.”

Mullins feels that she could win more flat races: “The steps that she has taken to date are huge, but now she is in the open league. Any small stable needs a horse like her. We have 24 or 25 riding out, and we only have eight to 10 to run at any one time. So, to have a filly like her is massive. It is special and it’s given a lift to a lot of people and Paddy Kehoe has really enjoyed the journey so far.

“Our main aim was to try and win the amateur handicap at Galway, but she had to win the Ladies Derby at the Curragh to get into it. There was nothing in my head at the time, only the amateur race at Galway. But she needed to win that to get a penalty to get into Galway.

Princess Zoe and Finny Maguie after winning the Connacht Hotel QR Handicap. Photo.carolinenorris.ie

“We all know Galway is a unique track, with its undulations and, if they handle it once, it’s tempting to go back there, particularly in the summer when the ground is summer soft and horses can take those races well and recover quickly. So, we went back there for the mile-and-a-half race on the Saturday and I thought she won that snug enough.”

Mullins has been in the game all his life and tends not to get too excited during a race.

Certainty

“I knew from her homework that she was going to run very well on the first night at Galway. Look, things can happen that might not help your cause, but I’ll be honest and say that I thought that she was a certainty heading to the Curragh and I told Paddy Kehoe that as well.

“Her work was that good and we had a very good rider booked (Jody Townend). The mare has a really good turn of foot – she can quicken, and I think that is even more potent on soft ground. When she made the cut for Galway, I thought it would take a smart horse to beat her.

“That is what excites us most about going jumping with her. She has won over two miles on the flat and if you look back at the amateur race at Galway, she was in a bit of a pocket, but as soon as she saw daylight, she picked up and won that pretty easily.

“We have schooled her over the baby hurdles, and she did that well and she gives us the impression that she will jump the bigger ones every bit as well.

“She is a very intelligent mare and is a very quick learner. But the reality is the novice hurdle division over here is very strong and it always has been. Envoi Allen looks an absolute machine and was the best novice hurdler around last season and you need a horse rated in the 120s to win a maiden hurdle – there are no soft touches over here. She is a 101-rated mare off the flat and if she takes to jumping, you’d like to think that she could be good.”

Ammunition

“But she has to go and do it. I’ve been around long enough now to know what can go wrong. We only have the one, whereas the bigger yards have plenty of ammunition. We have Party Playboy on the way back, but we need her to fly to flag for us – that is just the way it is.

“You can give out all you like about not getting horses, but she might just let people know that when we have one we know what to do with it. I’ve been around good horses all my life and she appears to be above average and, for a yard like ours, there is no point in saying otherwise, she is just very exciting.

“In a way, she has captured the imagination of the ordinary racing fan. A few people have been in touch to say that they’d like to come down and see her and that is great to see.”

New recruits

He has two new recruits into the yard and he feels they are down to the success of Princess Zoe.

“I got a great kick out of the Derby Sale this year. For the last few years I have gone up, had a look at a few horses, but you know that you can’t buy them, as you have no one for them and, as well as that, they up making too much money.

“But this year, I couldn’t get over the amount of people who came over to me and said ‘well done’ with the mare. It was humbling to be honest and it just shows that there are lots of people out there who want to see you do well.”

“Due to Covid, I couldn’t shake their hands, but it was great and for the first time in years, I ended up getting some nice horses from that sale – two Walk In The Park fillies. Would I have got them if the mare didn’t win twice at Galway? Probably not.

“We consider ourselves a very professional operation and if the mare helps to get new horses into the yard, all the better. But at the minute, you’d be fairly jumping out of the bed in the morning. We are into September now with the possibility of a trip to Paris next month and that is some going for a mare that was beaten in a 0-70 at Navan in June.

“She’ll school over hurdles after Paris with a view to running in maiden hurdle sometime in November. Paddy has already backed her for the Mares’ Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham and that is the plan.

“Grabel was placed in a Triumph Hurdle for him and it has always been his dream to have one good enough to be a contender for a race at Cheltenham.

“A lot of water has to go under the bridge before then, but she is thriving. Remember, she stared off getting beaten at Navan off 64. She has won three on the bounce and is now rated 101.

“She has won two lovely pots at Galway and the dream is still alive. Assuming all is good with her, she’ll head back there next week for the Oyster Stakes.

“You’d like to think that she would be hard to beat in a maiden hurdle, but she still has to go out and do it. The next step will tell us more – those novice hurdles are serious races. But it is just great to have one that you can dream about and that is enough to keep us going.”

Paddy Kehoe – “a great supporter”

PRINCESS Zoe’s owner Paddy Kehoe and Tony go back a long way. “My father won the American Champion Hurdle for Paddy with Grabel and that race was worth $750,000 and it was the biggest hurdle race of the 20th century anywhere in the world. I rode her and to win that race with a filly my father bought for £1,000 at Doncaster was huge. We had a brilliant time with that mare.

“Paddy was a great supporter of my father and he has kept me going to a large extent over the last few years. We nearly won the Newmarket Cesarewitch last year with Party Playboy who, like Princess Zoe, we bought in Germany. He met with a setback and is on the way back, so we may have the two of them on the go for the winter.

“There so many pattern races that she can go for, and Paddy just loves to have a good horse. He has been in the game a long time and if that horse has a winning chance in Cheltenham, that is where he wants them to go. He has no interest in the value of her and getting blacktype isn’t important in the overall scheme of things, as she isn’t for sale. It is very refreshing to be involved with someone who just loves his racing and doesn’t get caught up in the pattern.”

THE Princess Zoe success story has caught the imagination of many in racing. With the help of Dave Keena, Tony Mullins has agreed to keep readers of The Irish Field informed of the mare’s progress and other news from his yard in Gowran, Co Kilkenny, with occasional updates through the coming months.

“It would be great to let people know what goes into preparing a horse to run for those four minutes at Cheltenham,” Tony said. “With the ordinary racing fan not allowed to go racing at the minute, we hope to try and give everyone a little insight as to what goes on here. We’ll introduce the team behind her and I’d imagine Paddy Kehoe will get involved too.

“The beauty of racing is that the ordinary man or woman can go to a yard and have a look. You don’t get that with other sports. I want to try and get new people and horses into the yard. We only have a small little operation here and everyone will tell you that it is a results-based game. But we posted a video of her on Twitter last week and it had over 40,000 views which is staggering.”