Having secured record prize money of over €7 million in Ireland last season – and almost €2 million more in Britain -, Willie Mullins is now planning a potentially lucrative raid in Paris later this month.
Last week’s Punchestown Stayers hero Klassical Dream will head a sizeable Mullins squad going to Auteuil for French racing’s equivalent of the Dublin Racing Festival over May 20th-21st.
Klassical Dream finished runner-up to Hermès Baie in last year’s Grande Course de Haies D’Auteuil and will try to go one better in France’s version of the Champion Hurdle.
Mullins has an outstanding record in the €390,000 race, having first won it 20 years ago with Nobody Told Me. He has been victorious five times in all, including with Bénie des Dieux in 2019.
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Asterion Forlonge, who finished a half-length runner up to Klassical Dream at Punchestown last Thursday, is also set to line up in the feature event of the Saturday.
In contrast, France’s Gold Cup, the historic €900,000 Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris, has proved invulnerable to overseas raiders since Mandarin in 1962.
Mullins has had a number of attempts to bridge that gap in recent years but not come closer than last year, when Franco De Port belied 46-1 odds to finish third to Sel Jem.
The dual-Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Al Boum Photo was pulled up in that race and subsequently retired.
Franco De Port is on course to take another crack at the gruelling test run over 3¾ miles on the Sunday.
“Franco De Port will go for the Grand-Steeple. Galopin Des Champs was a possible but I’m not going to send him now. He’s on a break,” Mullins said on Monday.
“We’re putting together a team to go to Auteuil. I decided we’ll try to put in as many as we can rather than go to grass,” he added.
The concentration of French jump racing’s biggest prizes into a single weekend started a couple of years ago.
“It used to be separate days, one in May, one in June, but they’ve brought the June one back,” Mullins explained.
“I think for French racing it’s a good idea – it doesn’t suit us! We would prefer a longer break. But they’ve made it into a festival and they’re happy with the result,” he added.
Mullins described as “just enough” the three-week gap from Punchestown in terms of Klassical Dream and Asterion Forlonge’s chances.
Another Grade 1 target is France’s Triumph Hurdle, the €278,000 Prix Alain Du Breil which Mullins has won twice before with Footpad (2016) and Diakali in 2013.
“I’ll try to bring most of my four-year-olds. I’m not sure I’ll bring Lossiemouth, she’s had a tough season. But the others deserve a crack at it,” he said.
The Mullins team has three declared for Tuesday’s Ballinrobe action including Hercule Du Seuil, who makes his debut over fences in a Beginners Chase.
A winner at Grade Two level over flights at Fairyhouse on Easter Sunday, he should relish drying ground, a comment that may not apply to another JP McManus owned hope, Roseys Hollow.
