Did Willie Mullins ever ride a winner at the Cheltenham Festival?

Nowadays, Willie Mullins is best known as perennial Irish Champion National Hunt Trainer and, of course, the most successful handler in the history of the Cheltenham Festival, with 72 winners. However, in his earlier years, Mullins was a highly accomplished amateur jockey. In fact, he was Champion Amateur in his native land on six occasions and, in 1983, rode Atha Cliath, trained by his father, Paddy, to victory in the Foxhunters’ Open Hunters’ Chase, over the Grand National fences, at Aintree.

Having worked for his father and Jim Bolger as assistant trainer, Mulllins took out a training licence in his own right, at his yard in Closutton, Co. Carlow, in 1988. However, he continued to ride, even after saddling his first Cheltenham Festival winner, Tourist Attraction, in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in 1995. The following year, at the age of 40, he trained and rode Wither Or Which to win Grade One Champion Bumper, thereby recording his one and only success at the Festival as a jockey. As a trainer, though, Mullins was far from finished with the Champion Bumper, winning the race again in 1997, 1998, 2000, 2005, 2008, 2012, 2013, 2018 and 2020, for a total of 10 wins in all.

Which was the longest-priced winner in the history of the Cheltenham Festival?

The Cheltenham Festival is the scene of some of the most competitive, hotly-contested horse races staged anywhere in the world. Consequently, long-priced winners, while not exactly ten-a-penny, are to be expected from time to time, especially in the handicap races. The Pertemps Network Final, for example, produced two winners at 50/1 in the early Noughties.

More surprising, though, are rank outsiders in the highest calibre, Grade One races, which are run at level weights and, at least on paper, are supposed to represent a test of class. The Triumph Hurdle, for example, produced three winners at 66/1 during the Eighties.

Even the ‘championship’ races, such as the Champion Hurdle and the Cheltenham Gold Cup, are not immune to the odd shock. Kirriemuir, in 1965, and Beech Road, in 1989, both won the two-mile hurdling championship at odds of 50/1, but the ‘daddy of them all’ remains Norton’s Coin, trained by Carmarthenshire permit-holder Sirrell Griffiths. Not only did he bely odds of 100/1 to win the 1990 Cheltenham Gold Cup, but did so in style, beating reigning champion Desert Orchid and breaking the course record in the process. The ‘Racing Post’ rightly called it the ‘Shock of the Century’.

What is a Placepot bet?

The Placepot, or Tote Placepot, is a popular type of pool bet, the aim of which is to correctly predict a horse to be placed in each of the first six races at any meeting in Britain or Ireland. As with other types of Tote bet, the winning dividend is calculated by the dividing total stakes in the Placepot pool, subject to a 27% deduction, by the number of winning tickets. The winning dividend is declared to a £1 stake, but winnings are calculated pro rata, based on the amount staked on each permutation, or ‘line’, which can be as little as £0.10, or even £0.05, in some cases, sibject to a minimum total stake of £1.

As the name suggests, the Placepot is operated by the Tote, owned since 2019 by the UK Tote Group, but bets can be placed with many online bookmakers, who pass stakes back to the Tote pool. Obviously, the number of places offered depends on the number of runners in a race; in races with four or fewer runners only the winner counts for Placepot purposes, in races with between five and seven runners the first two count, in races with eight or more runners the first three count and in handicap races with sixteen or more runners the first four count. Picking more than one selection in one or more legs of the Placepot increases your chances of a return, but also the number of permutations and, hence, your total stake.

How many races at the Cheltenham Festival are handicaps?

The ‘Olympics’ of National Hunt racing, the Cheltenham Festival, was from three to four days in 2005 and, nowadays, the schedule consists of seven-race cards each day, making 28 races in total.

Exactly half of those races are at the highest calibre, Grade One level and include the four main, ‘championship’ races, namely the Champion Hurdle, Queen Mother Champion Chase, Stayers’ Hurdle and Cheltenham Gold Cup.

However, nearly a third of the Cheltenham Festival schedule is made up of handicaps, four over fences and five over hurdles, strategically positioned throughout the four days. All nine handicaps have a safety limit of 20 or more and generally attract maximum fields, which makes them fiercely competitive and, by the same token, devilishly difficult to solve from the punters’ perspective.

The four handicap steeplechases are, in chrononological order, the Ultima Handicap Chase, on day one, Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Challenge Cup, on day two, and the Paddy Power Plate and Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup, both on day four. Similarly, the five handicap hurdles are the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle, on day one, Coral Cup, on day two, Pertemps Network Final, on day three and the McCoy Contractors County Handicap Hurdle and Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle, both on day four.

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