GOWRAN Park drew its usual big crowd for Thyestes day and the feature produced a classy winner in Nick Rockett, running off 152 and hiked to 161 as a result.

There was a feeling afterwards that this was his All-Ireland – the prep in the Paddy Power, the poignant local connection and the right-handed track – but his revised mark does suggest that he could in theory be competitive in graded races, for all his yard have a raft of options in those races.

Going this way around might be important however, as he looked uncomfortable when winning his maiden hurdle at Naas in March 2023.

Paul Townend said afterwards that he ‘had a plan [to go wide]’ having walked the track the evening before and it was the same outer route that Jacques Ricou took on Ucello Conti when third in the race in 2016.

The French rider had been criticised for that novel approach at the time, including by me, but he was ahead of his time, those tactics often working at Gowran now on bad ground, Townend one of the best around at spotting these biases.

Some others ran with credit, not least the runner-up Velvet Elvis in first-time cheekpieces, while the fifth Bushmans Pass was up with that rival for much of the way.

He was having his first start in 10 months, Oliver McKiernan suggesting beforehand that the run would be needed, and he would have finished closer but for a bad mistake two out. He may be a nine-year-old, but he has only had 10 starts under rules, winning four of them.

Tell the story

Last year’s runner-up Glengouly unseated when beaten at the last this time but that doesn’t tell the story as just about everything that could go wrong for him, did. Caught further back than he likely wanted in a messy start, he hit the first which caused his rider to lose his irons, and he got lit up.

This caused him to race keenly, and he took himself through the field, not always jumping fluently, yet was still there going well after four out. He predictably faltered thereafter but this was nothing like as bad as it looked and while hardly the typical Willie Mullins winner in wating, it would be no surprise to see him pop up at a big price.

Galmoy Hurdle

The other feature race winner was Rocky’s Diamond in the Galmoy Hurdle. He had looked an optimistic entry in the Grade 1 staying hurdle at Christmas but outran odds of 66/1 to finish third, shaping better than the result too.

He built on that here, getting a good ride from Shane Fitzgerald who moved his mount gradually through field to get a good position off a slow pace, only three lengths covering the first four home, the race sectional per Timeform the fastest of the five races on the hurdles card despite being over the longest trip.

An advantageous track position was far from his sole reason for winning however as he jumped better than last time and showed a good attitude, but the thing that makes him stand out is his profile.

It is rare for a five-year-old to win an open three-mile graded hurdle over staying trips; I went back to 2008 on Horse Race Base and could find just 11 examples.

Interestingly, eight of those winners came in Ireland, perhaps indicative of the steadier paces in these races here, and there are some very good names in there, including Punchestowns, Cole Harden, Apple’s Jade, Flooring Porter and Irish Point.

All bar Rocky’s Diamond were winning their graded races towards the end of their fifth year, either in November or December, whereas he did so in the third week of January, so there could be plenty more to come.

De Bromhead troubles

One final thought from Thyestes day concerns the runs of the Henry de Bromhead horses who finished with form figures:67009. Two of them were beaten favourites but more than that his runners seemed to be in trouble leaving the back straight before the finish.

It is as if a switch was turned off on New Year’s Eve, the yard just two winners from 54 runners in January at the time of writing with 11 places, and it had to have any confidence in them at the moment.

WILLIE Mullins has bossed the Dublin Racing Festival since its inception in 2018, averaging 6.7 winners per meeting in those seven years, peaking at nine winners last year and in 2021. His total of 47 winners in that period include 34 at Grade 1 level.

That dominance is set to continue in 2025 judging by the markets but one factor to consider is the profile of his potential winners coming into the meetings.

Taking November 1st as the traditional starting point of the jumps season, Mullins has had 74 winners in Ireland and Britain as of Sunday last, Gordon Elliott (64 winners), Dan Skelton (55) and Olly Murphy (54) the only other trainers to hit the half century.

Those 74 winners came from 314 total runners and also produced 140 placed runners for respective win and place strike-rates of 23.9% and 44.6%.

Digging into those winners shows that horses with different profiles have been having various levels of success.

The table below breaks his runners from November 1st 2024 to last Sunday into three profiles: horses having their first start for Mullins of any type, horses that were previously with the yard having their first start in 100 days or more (i.e. seasonal debutants) and horses running back within 100 days (i.e. horses having their second or third starts of the season).

Things are fine and dandy with the first two groups, the final group not so much, the most high-profile of them being Lossiemouth and Ballyburn at Kempton over Christmas, albeit both were facing strong opposition.

Second time out

The improvement that seemed a given in previous years second time out has not been there with some this season though it does need pointing out that their record has improved dramatically in recent days.

Seven of the Mullins-trained winners from last Wednesday through Naas on Sunday were second time out, including Nick Rockett, Anzadam and Dancing City, so presumably the crease is on its way to being ironed out.

Still, it is something to monitor at the DRF this weekend with so many of the Closutton short ones having their second start of the season, among them Final Demand, Majborough and Gaelic Warrior.

LAST Saturday at Fairyhouse was unusual in that it produced not one, but two, winners coming off a short turnaround in Don’t Talk and One Horse Army, both returning within the week to double up recent successes.

National Hunt horses running back within seven days is common enough, and since the start of the 2019/20 season through last weekend there were 309 such winners, though it’s much more of a summer and autumn thing; in that period, 217 of those winners came between the months of June and October.

It will be no surprise to anyone that the trainer that has had most success with this approach is John Ryan, with 28 winners from 229 runners in those years, his runners mildly profitable to bet too for a level stakes profit of 12.52 points.

Gordon Elliott (19 winners from 107 runners) is the only other trainer to breach three figures in terms of runners in the time specified though a couple of names to note from few runners are Matthew Smith and Declan Queally.

Smith is seven winners from 40 runners for a level stakes profit of 14.58 points, Dartan and Cozone both doing this twice, while Queally is six winners from 34 runners for a level stakes profit of 12.52 points.