Which horse brought up 100 Cheltenham Festival winners for Willie Mullins?

The perennial champion National Hunt trainer in his native Ireland, and currently champion trainer in Britain, too, County Carlow-based Willie Mullins has changed the face of the sport in the four decades since taking out a training licence in his own right in 1988. Nowhere more so than at the biggest meeting of the year, the Cheltenham Festival, where he has been the leading trainer in eight of the last ten years and 11 times in all. Indeed, Willie Mullins is far and away the most prolific trainer in the history of the March showpiece meeting, with 103 winners to his name, 30 more than his nearest pursuer, Nicky Henderson.

The opening day of the 2025 Festival, March 11, marks the thirtieth annivesary of Mullins’ first winne at the Cheltenham Festival, Tourist Attraction, ridden by Mark Dwyer, in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. In the interim, Mullins has won 21 of the 28 races staged over the four days at least once, including the Champion Hurdle and Ryanair Chase five times apiece, the Cheltenham Gold Cup four times and the Queen Mother Champion Chase and Stayers’ Hurdle twice apiece.

Mullins will, without question, increase his career tally in due course, but reached the landmark of 100 Cheltenham winners on March 13, 2024, courtesy of Jasmin De Vaux, ridden by his son, Patrick, in the Weatherbys Champion Bumper. He had reached 99 winners thanks to victories for Ballyburn, in the Gallagher Novices’ Hurdle, and Fact To File, in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase, earlier in the day.