NEW records and milestone victories have become the norm in Willie Mullins’ era of National Hunt dominance, and the legendary trainer heads to the 2024 Cheltenham Festival on the brink of another colossal achievement.

The most successful handler in Cheltenham Festival history currently sits on the 94 winners at the four-day bonanza, meaning he could well become the first trainer to reach a century of Festival successes this spring.

There have been an array of spellbinding displays from the Closutton maestro’s troops at Prestbury Park since Tourist Attraction provided him with a breakthrough victory at the meeting in the 1995 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.

As Mullins drives on towards a famous 100th success, it is probably an opportune moment to look back on some of his finest hours at the Festival so far, and this feature counts down my top dozen Cheltenham performances from the powerhouse yard.

A bit of housekeeping: any one horse was only included on the list once, even if they produced multiple performances worthy of making the top 12. For example, Allaho’s back-to-back wins in the Ryanair Chase in 2021 and 2022 were highly similar in nature and could have made my shortlist, but including both meant squeezing another top-class effort out. It seemed the fairest means of approaching this task.

Ranking favourite horses and performances is always a subjective matter, and those who have not made the list - and indeed the table position of those who are included - will not be agreeable to everyone. This is a ranking of the best performances, as opposed to best horses in terms of a body of work during their career.

Feel free to reach out to The Irish Field’s social media accounts with your own top dozen performances from Willie Mullins-trained horses at the greatest show on turf. It’s a game of opinions, and I was disappointed to have to leave some big performances out.

2016 Neptune Novices’ Hurdle

Ruby Walsh | Andrea & Graham Wylie | 3/1

Enigmatic but ridiculously talented, Yorkhill had his own style of doing things. There always appeared to be a quirk in the gelded son of Presenting, who was once memorably described by Ted Walsh as “a dirty rotten so’n’so, and nothing short of it”.

Given all his waywardness, it was quite the achievement from Willie Mullins and Ruby Walsh to win Grade 1 races in back-to-back years with the Wylie family’s star.

The performance of both horse and rider in the 2017 JLT Novices’ Chase was top-notch, but there was arguably more of a wow factor about how he took Yanworth apart in the previous year’s Neptune Novices’ Hurdle.

Ridden cold and right down the inside rail, he quickened through a gap on the inner turning for home in pretty sensational fashion, showing a tremendous burst of pace towards the closing stages of a Grade 1.

He didn’t do a major amount in front, not for the first time in his career, but always looked like holding Grade 1 regular Yanworth by a length and three quarters.

Speaking in the immediate aftermath, Mullins pondered: “I’m wondering could he come back to be a Champion Hurdle horse? Ruby got down and said he would win the Arkle with his mouth open next year.”

Yorkhill instead returned in similarly impressive fashion over two and a half miles the following season, but would only win twice more in his career; landing a Galway Festival conditions chase in 2019 and the 2020 Rehearsal Handicap Chase as a 66/1 shot when trained by Sandy Thomson.

What a talent he was on his day, though. While Yorkhill was at the peak of his powers, Patrick Mullins once was quoted as saying: “For me, he could win any of the four marquee races at the Cheltenham Festival.”

2009 David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle

Ruby Walsh | Hammer & Trowel Syndicate | 2/1

Despite the fact she was kept exclusively to mares-only company throughout her time at Cheltenham, it’s difficult not to include Quevega on any list heralding Willie Mullins excellence at the meeting.

Determining which of her extraordinary six consecutive victories at the Festival was her best did not prove entirely straightforward. There was more depth to the opposition when she beat Carole’s Legacy and Voler La Vedette readily in 2010, but the 14-length rout she produced when winning her first Mares’ Hurdle in 2009 was the biggest she ever posted in graded company.

Timeform deemed her Festival first as the top of her Cheltenham performances too, noting: “She wouldn’t have been far behind the principals had she contested the Champion Hurdle; she found things coming easy for the most part after a tardy start and soon drew clear when shaken up turning in, posting a smart figure without being flat out.”

Competing as 2/1 favourite - the longest odds she ever was sent off at Cheltenham - she ran useful mare United ragged, beating the runner-up by the same margin as she was beaten when fourth to Inglis Drever in the previous year’s Stayers’ Hurdle. United, on her next and final start, added further substance to the form when a close third behind Solwhit in the Aintree Hurdle, splitting Fiveforthree and Al Eile.

Mullins said in the post-race exchanges: “I thought she was my best chance of the week but I was surprised by the margin of the win. She’s a very good mare - at least she’s proved she’s the business.”

2016 Arkle Novices’ Chase

Ruby Walsh | Susannah Ricci | 1/4

Mullins never made any secret of his huge opinion of Douvan and the imposing chaser handed out a seven-length hammering to the following season’s Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Sizing John in the 2016 Arkle.

Becoming the first horse since Flyingbolt in 1965 to win this race, having taken the Supreme 12 months earlier, Douvan “made jumping fences feel like you were jumping hurdles” in the opinion of winning rider Ruby Walsh. Barring a guessy leap at the last, he jumped with real zest and intelligence for a novice on his way to collecting as 1/4 favourite.

Given he was immediately cut to 6/4 for the following year’s Champion Chase after this success, it’s deeply disappointing that we never again got to see Douvan win at Cheltenham after this.

Susannah Ricci’s sublime talent became the shortest-priced favourite to ever taste defeat at a Cheltenham Festival when seventh as 2/9 favourite for the following season’s Champion Chase, found to be lame behind.

Over the next 974 days, he only managed to run on three more occasions, falling at the fourth last when travelling strongly in the 2018 Champion Chase, runner-up to Un De Sceaux at that year’s Punchestown Festival and then winning the 2019 Clonmel Oil Chase on his final appearance.

Immediately after his Arkle triumph, Mullins said: “Douvan is special and hopefully he just keeps winning. Where do you go next? You would think the Champion Chase but I wouldn’t have had a problem supplementing this fellow for the Champion Hurdle this year. He stays as well and he settles. He’s a Gold Cup horse.”

Versatility we sadly never managed to see.

2017 Ryanair Chase

Ruby Walsh | Edward O’Connell | 7/4

It mightn’t have been a sizzling renewal of the Ryanair Chase in 2017, but a spectacular effort from Ruby Walsh and Un De Sceaux made for enthralling viewing as the popular chaser recorded a second Cheltenham Festival success.

Stepping up to the longest trip he’d ever faced over fences, the then nine-year-old was initially positioned behind runners but proved way too keen for Walsh’s liking and ended up racing alone in front under a tight grip.

Given the possible stamina concerns, there was a strong chance the O’Connell family’s stalwart wouldn’t last home with his overly exuberant travelling, but an absolutely thrilling exhibition of jumping helped keep his momentum up throughout.

It was a masterful piece of horsemanship from Walsh to preserve him as best as he could to the business end of the race, and the Grade 1 veteran showed plenty of fight to fend off a closing Sub Lieutenant by a length and a half.

According to Timeform’s report of the meeting, Un De Sceaux “put up a performance bettered in the history of the Ryanair only by Vautour 12 months earlier and Cue Card in 2013, an idea of the rarified air an on-song Un De Sceaux resides considering that pair’s standing, his strong-galloping style proving a more potent weapon over this trip than it had when only third in the Champion Chase last year for all there wasn’t much left at the end as Sub Lieutenant reduced the gap from six lengths on the run-in.”

“I was a passenger,” Walsh quipped afterwards.

“I got him back at the first fence down the back, but he attacked and jumped and he stayed. The jump at the last was special. He’s a little tiger.”

1998 Royal & Sun Alliance Chase

Richard Dunwoody | Mrs Violet O’Leary| 11/8

As Channel 4 Racing’s Jim McGrath summed it up just seconds after Florida Pearl crossed the line in front in the 1998 Royal & Sun Alliance Chase: “The celebrations have started. This was the banker. If you don’t put it down you can’t pick it up, and the boys from across the water were convinced beforehand. Now they’ve got pound notes to prove it.

“He’s won and wiped the bookies out. The normally reserved Richard Dunwoody is joining in the jubilation.”

At a time when Irish winners at Cheltenham were nowhere near as plentiful as is the case today, Florida Pearl’s second consecutive win at the Festival was one to savour for the travelling faithful.

Making the bold transition from a Champion Bumper win 12 months earlier to this Grade 1 novice chase, he got the better of Escartefigue by a length and a half, with a further 19 lengths back to French raider Fulip in third.

John Francome described the performance as “outstanding”, while Timeform too waxed lyrical, adding: “Florida Pearl is quite simply the best chasing prospect for many a year and that he could win a championship event with such authority on only his third start over fences and his sixth race in all augurs extremely well for his future… He jumped like an old hand, measured and faultless, moved effortlessly up to the lead four out and came back on the bridle when headed marginally off the turn, quickening into the last and flying it before running on well up the hill.”

Florida Pearl went on to amass an array of big-race wins, but none more at Cheltenham itself. Running in each of the next three Cheltenham Gold Cups, he finished an 18-length third to See More Business in 1999, was beaten five lengths when second to Looks Like Trouble in 2000 and finished down the field in 11th behind Best Mate in 2002.

2019 Cheltenham Gold Cup

Paul Townend | Mrs J Donnelly | 12/1

When the Gold Cup is the Blue Riband event of the meeting and Willie Mullins had been waiting so long to finally plunder the great prize (previously second on six occasions), it only seems right that Al Boum Photo features prominently enough on this list.

He may not have had the same flashy profile as some of Mullins’ other great names to feature here, but the back-to-back Gold Cup hero of 2019 and 2020 feels like a somewhat underappreciated champion.

When the record of horses returning to even race in the following season’s Gold Cup after winning the race a year earlier is mixed, the achievements of Joe and Marie Donnelly’s campaigner to run at five consecutive Cheltenham Festivals, notching two Gold Cups and a third to Minella Indo when seeking a hat-trick, deserves credit.

Both Timeform and Racing Post Ratings view his first victory in the race to be his best of the two wins, winning by two and a half lengths in a race that included Grade 1 winners Native River, Bristol De Mai, Clan Des Obeaux, Presenting Percy, Shattered Love, Thistlecrack, Bellshill, Might Bite and Kemboy.

There were plenty of disappointments in the race, but the hardy son of Buck’s Boum travelled with class, put the field away well and was masterfully trained to peak on the day.

“Every time I looked at Paul, he and the horse seemed to in a rhythm, galloping away, looking so relaxed,” said Mullins.

“When he came to the top of the hill I thought, this horse has got plenty left in the tank. Every time he needed a squeeze, the horse responded.”

2015 Champion Hurdle

Ruby Walsh | Susannah Ricci | 4/5

He may have gotten the run of the race on the front end, but Faugheen delivered a dominant display when notching back-to-back Festival wins in the 2015 Champion Hurdle and extended his unbeaten run to 10 wins (including a debut win between the flags at Ballysteen).

This performance was evidence of how Mullins is unafraid to experiment with different trips for his horses, with the previous season’s Neptune Novices’ Hurdle winner having started out at two miles and six furlongs over hurdles and won a three-mile graded novice hurdle at the 2013 Limerick Christmas Festival on heavy ground.

Faugheen became the first Irish point-to-pointer to win a Champion Hurdle and had too much for a staying-on Arctic Fly and 11-year-old Hurricane Fly, who was retired before the following season.

The previous year’s Champion Hurdle first and third, Jezki and The New One, completed the first five places. Arguably the most impressive element of the performance was how the winner picked up powerfully after a mistake at the second last, effectively putting the race to bed at the top of the straight. It was a Walsh masterclass.

As summed up by Mullins on the day: “Faugheen was fantastic, Ruby was fantastic. He dictated the pace, did what he did when he wanted and quickened when he wanted.”

2011 Champion Hurdle

Ruby Walsh | George Creighton & Mrs Rose Boyd | 11/4

He probably never saved his very best for Cheltenham, but the record-breaking phenom that is Hurricane Fly still goes down in the history books as a dual Champion Hurdle hero and became Mullins’ first winner in the race in 2011.

Again, either of the tenacious hurdler’s two Festival successes could have made this list, but his first arguably came with a little more swagger and Timeform rated it 4lb better (171+) than what he produced in 2013 when becoming the first horse since Comedy Of Errors to regain the Champion Hurdle.

In fact, Timeform hailed ‘The Fly’ as having “produced one of the best performances in this race since the days of Istabraq, his turn of foot decisive in a race less strongly run than might have been anticipated, though he’d surely have won however the race had been run, impressing with how smoothly he travelled under a patient ride.”

He fought off the previous season’s Neptune Novices’ Hurdle scorer Peddlers Cross by a length and a quarter and pulled a further five lengths clear of Oscar Whisky and Thousand Stars, who finished one-two in the Aintree Hurdle on their next starts. Menorah and Dunguib, first and third from the Supreme a year earlier, were also in the field, finishing fifth and eighth.

“He’s shown the ability that myself, Willie Mullins and Paul Townend always believed he had,” Walsh said in the immediate aftermath.

“He’s a deserved champion. He’s only small but he has a big heart and he needed it today.”

2023 Cheltenham Gold Cup

Paul Townend | Mrs Audrey Turley | 7/5

Deemed the best Cheltenham Gold Cup winner since Kauto Star by the Racing Post Ratings team, who handed him a superb mark of 184, Galopin Des Champs was electric in an enthralling feature event last year - described as a “vintage winner” of the race while just a seven-year-old.

Paul Townend was tremendously cool on the long-range favourite, who entered the race with his stamina to prove.

The answer to whether he would see out the extended three miles and two furlongs was a resounding yes, as he powered away from Bravemansgame by seven lengths up the hill - atoning for his dramatic final-fence fall in the previous season’s Turners Novices’ Chase.

Townend said: “Everywhere I went there was a bit of trouble, his jumping just got a bit careful for the first circuit but going out I had full faith in him that he was going to get me out of trouble and he did.

“He’s a proper, proper horse because he’s run about three different races and still won a Gold Cup. I could see them all going at it in front of me and it allowed me to fill up and be the last one on the scene.”

Mullins added: “He has that little bit of class you could run him over two miles or two and a half miles. He has that speed when you want it. You just have to conserve it.”

2016 Champion Hurdle

Ruby Walsh | Susannah Ricci | 5/2

Any mare who can beat the boys in a Champion Hurdle while effectively making all on her way to setting a new course record deserves to be high in the list of any top performances ranking at the Cheltenham Festival.

Granted, the opposition she faced meant this wasn’t an outstanding Champion Hurdle field but she put the field away readily under a stellar ride on the front end and became the first mare to win the race since Flakey Dove in 1994.

Deputising for injured stablemate Faugheen and attempting to make amends for her desperately unlucky fall in the Mares’ Hurdle a year earlier, the immense relief when she touched down after winging the final flight could be felt throughout Cheltenham Racecourse, and had Walsh sent her down to the obstacle with nerves of steel.

This four-and-a-half-length beating of My Tent Or Yours prompted the Racing Post’s analysis team to hail her as “the most talented of her sex since the great Dawn Run, who also won in 1984.”

“When I bought Annie Power,” Mullins said, “I thought, this is the closest mare I have seen to Dawn Run.” Enough said.

2021 Ryanair Chase

Rachael Blackmore | Cheveley Park Stud | 3/1

The 2021 Cheltenham Festival, which took place behind closed doors during the Covid-19 pandemic, was different to any edition of the meeting before, and in that year Allaho produced a Ryanair-winning performance like we’d rarely ever seen before.

Taking no prisoners under Rachael Blackmore, the pair pounded their rivals into submission under aggressive tactics on the front end and still had 12 lengths to spare at the line. It was a monstrous display.

A rating of 177+ was assigned by Timeform, who noted: “He charged off in front over this shorter trip and didn’t look vulnerable at any point, a string of high-class chasers left trailing in his wake, utter domination.”

Evidence of his relentless is in the fact all but four of his 10 rivals pulled up on ground described as good to soft over two miles and five furlongs. Left in his wake were Grade 1 winners like Min, Samcro, Tornado Flyer, Fakir D’oudairies, Melon and Kalashnikov.

Mullins was at his most effusive in reflecting on the demolition job.

“It was an awesome performance,” said the champion trainer.

“The first thing I did when Rachael came back in was lift her number cloth to see if the lead bag was in there as it looked like Allaho was just carrying Rachael around there! He was just awesome.

“I was sort of as gobsmacked as anyone else watching it as I fully expected the two horses in front [Allaho and Min] to probably collapse coming to the third last but that’s their style of racing.”

2016 Ryanair Chase

Ruby Walsh | Susannah Ricci | Evens

It remains one of the great racing disappointments in recent times that Vautour never managed to return to Cheltenham again after a truly mesmerising showing in the 2016 Ryanair Chase - my top performance from a Willie Mullins-trained horse at the Festival of all time.

So much had been spoken about the Ricci-owned star in the build-up to the meeting, and a late switch from the Gold Cup to this race left punters frustrated, but the 2014 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and 2015 JLT Novices’ Chase hero made the loudest statement of all with a dazzling six-length strike.

Triple Grade 1 winner Valseur Lido chased him home, with dual Grade 1 winners Road To Riches (third in previous year’s Gold Cup) and Al Ferof third and fourth. The fifth, sixth and seventh, Gilgamboa, Taquin Du Seuil and Dynaste, were also winners at the highest level.

What made the magnificent effort all the more impressive was the fact his preparation for this race was far from straightforward.

Walsh said: “He’s a pleasure to ride. We’ve had a fair battle with him since Christmas, but he was spectacular today. If you were watching him at home I’m not sure you’d even have run him in the Ryanair.”

Mullins added: “He had a very hard race when second in the King George and it took him ages and ages to get over it. We’ve been trying everything with him for the past three weeks, all sorts of things, and they’ve obviously worked.”

As summed up by the Racing Post analysis team, “he beat high-class horses with ridiculous ease” and delivered “the most stunning performance of the week” as he “confirmed himself to be the best chaser in training.”

After this third consecutive Cheltenham Festival win, Vautour fell in the Melling Chase at Aintree and was upset by God’s Own as 4/9 favourite at Punchestown. He tragically broke his leg in a freak paddock accident before ever returning to the track and had to be put down.

For his many followers, this Ryanair performance stirs up the fondest of memories but some sadness lingers that he never had the chance to reach the summit again.