Tag Archive for: seamus mullins

Moroder returns to winning form with Grimthorpe repeat

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Seamus Mullins’ Moroder rolled back the years to reclaim his title in the Virgin Bet Grimthorpe Handicap Chase at Doncaster.

The 11-year-old won the contest under James Best in 2023, striking at 18-1 and going on to finish second in the bet365 Gold Cup on his next start to wrap up his season.

His form has waxed and waned since, however, with his second-placed Cheltenham run when wearing blinkers last April his only placed effort in several runs in the meantime.

The blinkers were applied again on his return to Town Moor, where he was ridden by Best again as a 33-1 shot.

The early spring ground seemed to suit the gelding, who travelled well throughout and looked to be enjoying himself around the three-mile-two-furlong trip.

He took up the lead four fences for home and clearly was not going to be passed, holding off all challengers to come home two and three-quarter lengths ahead of 4-1 favourite The Kniphand.

“It’s a good fillip to the yard, we’ve had a bit of an in-and-out season but we’re coming back to form,” said Mullins.

“It’s just nice to come back and do it again for Besty, he loves it.

“The handicapper will have a bit of a say after today, which is fair enough, but he’d have to take his chance at Sandown again.

“We fiddled around last year and went to that race at Cheltenham and that was when he showed us that the spring ground is really what he needs, so he’ll definitely get an entry.

“This was the first bit of decent ground we could find and we made our minds up at Christmas that we’d try to come here.

“He came with plenty of petrol in the tank, we’ve dropped down the handicap but for good reason because he wasn’t running well.

“We’ve just minded our horses and ticked over and hopefully in the spring we’ll be repaid for that bit of patience.”

Tommie Beau could seek alternative targets to Cheltenham after cross-country drama

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A Cheltenham cross-country return may not be on the agenda for Seamus Mullins’ Tommie Beau after a dramatic end to his Glenfarclas bid last week.

The nine-year-old is a seasoned chaser who was making his debut around the unique course when ridden by Micheal Nolan as the 100-30 favourite in a field of nine.

Things looked to be going swimmingly for the combination ahead of the turn for home, with Tommie Beau jumping incredibly well throughout and occupying a competitive position at the foot of the hill.

Sadly a blip in communication seemed to then occur and he found himself on the wrong side of the track having nipped through an opening in the rail.

Nolan then had no choice but to pull the gelding up as Sweet David, who very nearly followed him off the course, went on to win for French trainer Gabriel Leenders. Adding to Nolan’s woe was a subsequent 12-day suspension for his error.

“They both looked to be enjoying themselves, that’s for sure, it was just one of those things,” said Mullins.

“When you enter those races, you know they are different, you have to accept that things can go wrong as they are not straightforward.

“I’m a believer that if the horse is OK and the rider is OK, then it’s just jump racing.

“There are positives and he’s come out of the race fine, it’s a missed opportunity, but never mind.”

Despite taking so well to the cross-country course at Cheltenham, a return there is not guaranteed for Tommie Beau, who has options elsewhere on home turf and also further afield in France.

“Possibly not, we’re looking at going to France and to the London Grand National at Sandown next,” Mullins said of the prospect of taking on Cheltenham’s cross-country track again.

“We may stick an entry in at the December meeting for the cross country, but I anticipate that it will be a lot stronger race.

“There’s a race at Pau in February that we might look at, whether we go back for the Festival or not would be debatable.

“It’s not necessarily the owner’s cup of tea or mine, that race at the Festival, everything’s up in air with that and I wouldn’t say he’d be a definite runner in the cross country at Cheltenham again this season.”

Moroder has Seamus Mullins dreaming of Aintree honours

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Seamus Mullins has an eye on the big fences at Aintree for his Grimthorpe Chase winner Moroder.

The nine-year-old is a seven-time winner and ended last season on a high when very nearly landing a valuable staying handicap double.

A tough winner of the Grimthorpe at Doncaster in March, the gelding then contested the bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown and was beaten only by Christian Williams’ Kitty’s Light.

That performance, and subsequent handicap adjustments, have left the bay on a career-high mark of 140 coming into his seasonal debut in the Norman Court Stud Handicap Chase at Wincanton on Sunday.

Mullins expects the horse to come on for the run, which is likely to pave the way to the Becher Chase at Aintree in December and could in turn lead him back to Liverpool for the Grand National in spring.

“He’s very well, he’s had a good summer. He’s a horse who always needs the run because he’s a big, heavy horse so whatever he does on Sunday he will benefit from,” Mullins said.

“We have one eye on the Becher as his autumn target, he is in the race at Newbury (the Coral Gold Cup) and if he went really well on Sunday then we’d have a look at that.

“We’ve really an eye on Aintree in April, so we’ll plan his autumn campaign around the Becher Chase and see how he takes the National fences at Aintree.

“If he ran well there then we might consider the National, it’s early days and he’d have to improve with the new National structure as off of 140 he mightn’t even get in.

“He’ll have to improve again but then he’s entitled to.

“He went and won the Grimthorpe and then went to Sandown where he ran one hell of a race and was just unfortunately chinned by the Christian Williams horse.

“Hopefully he’ll have a clear run this year and we can have a full campaign with him. He’ll go and blow away the cobwebs at Wincanton and we’ll see from there.

“The most likely place he’d end up going would be Aintree for the Becher, then we’ll plan his campaign around that.”

Moroder flashes home in tight Grimthorpe finish

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Moroder showed plenty of tenacity to cause an 18-1 shock in the Virgin Bet Grimthorpe Handicap Chase at Doncaster.

The Seamus Mullins-trained nine-year-old strung a four-race winning run together last season but had failed to figure in two outings so far this term.

It was the Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained Undersupervision who looked the most likely victor when jockey Sam Twiston-Davies kicked for home as the runners came round the final bend.

However, as the action unfolded up the straight – and the stamina reserves of the challengers started to run empty – the eye was drawn to the white noseband of Moroder who was keeping on in the hands of James Best.

Having joined Undersupervision approaching two out, Moroder knuckled down gamely on the run in to outstay the 3-1 runner-up, with only a neck separating the pair at the finish of the £70,000 event.

As well as being a big Saturday winner for his trainer, it was also a welcome success on the big stage for Best, who was not lacking for strength in the saddle when the race was in the balance in the closing stages.

Mullins said: “He had an injury in the autumn which curtailed his campaign and he probably needed the comeback run, as he always does, at Newbury and then we had the frosty weather. He’s a big, gross kind of horse and I’m not a big fan of taking them off for racecourse gallops and things.

“We try to get them ready at home and he probably had come on a lot for his Wincanton run and we thought we had a live chance. We knew we weren’t deserving the long odds that he went off at. He’s a great stayer, a galloper, jumps accurately and he did well today because it would have been plenty quick enough for him, but he seemed to chop with it well.”

Doncaster Races – Saturday 4th March
James Best salutes the Doncaster crowd aboard Moroder (Richard Sellers/PA)

The Town Moor contest often serves as a Grand National trial, but not amongst the entrants for Aintree, the winner holds a Midlands National entry and Betfair and Paddy Power both go 20-1 from 50s for that Uttoxeter event on March 18, although Mullins expressed doubts about that contest.

He added: “It might come a bit quick after today.

“We will have a sit down with the owner and it was kind of more desperation really to find a race where we could run, the way it was going. I would say probably less likely than likely to go to Uttoxeter.

Doncaster Races – Saturday 4th March
Winning connections at Doncaster (Richard Sellers/PA)

“We will probably look for later in the spring, I will have to discuss it with the owner. Anything from three miles up, I might even think of the Scottish National or something like that. That could be more his line than Uttoxeter.”

Mullins was not at Doncaster, instead saddling a runner at Newbury and relying on his son to take care of operations in South Yorkshire.

He said: “My son did all the officiating up at Doncaster today, he took a day off his holiday to go and saddle him and help me out.”