Willie Mullins sets Grand National winner on same path as Galopin Des Champs

Willie Mullins has set Grand National winner Nick Rockett on the same path as two-time Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs.

The champion trainer enjoyed ‘the highlight of his life’ when Nick Rockett carried son Patrick to a famous Aintree victory back in April when he saw off stablemate and 2024 winner I Am Maximus and Grangeclare West to complete a stable 1-2-3. That victory has opened new opportunities for the eight-year-old who has won his last three starts over fences.

Mullins said on Wednesday: “He’s quite entitled to go back for the Grand National but I think he deserves a Gold Cup entry. I thought his performance last year in the National was very good, he has all the attributes for a Gold Cup entry this year.”

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He went on: “I think Nick Rockett winning with Patrick riding him was maybe the highlight of my life. As a father, putting your son up to win a Grand National is huge. Ted Walsh knows all about that, but I got a great kick out of it.”

Mullins’s star staying chaser Galopin Des Champs was thwarted in his bid for an historic hat-trick of Gold Cup victories at the Cheltenham Festival in March when he was second to Iknowthewayurthinkin. He bounced back from that six-length defeat with a wide margin win in the Punchestown Gold Cup to end his campaign.

Mullins, outlining early plans at the HRI jumps season launch, said of him: “I think the Gold Cup will be his aim again. He’s nine so he’s young enough to have another go at the Gold Cup again and be a real potent force.

“He ran really well last year, he was just beaten over the last fence but I think he’s still got enough in him to be a real contender this year.”

The trainer said Il Etait Temps who dished out a comprehensive beating to Jonbon on his only start in the Celebration Chase at Sandown could take part in a rematch in the Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown.

“We might try and get a run into him before that in the Clonmel Oil Chase,” he said. “If that form is proper form he’s going to be a real addition to our top chasing ranks.”
Ballyburn, a Cheltenham Festival winner as a novice hurdler in 2023 but defeated when odds-on favourite for the Brown Advisory Chase in March, will return to smaller obstacles.

“He just didn’t really take to chasing and I’m thinking he’d have to really kick up a gear this year, out of novice company into Grade Ones,” Mullins said. “He might be better off sticking to the long-distance hurdle races which might be easier for him.”