Mullins’ past heartbreak can’t kill off Cup dream

In a land of romantic poets and Nobel Prize-winning novelists, Willie Mullins grew up reading about the Melbourne Cup. The race has so far only ever delivered him heartbreak, but never quite enough for him to fall out of love with it.

Since 1861 Australia’s great race has lured in hopers and dreamers from around the world like Mullins, from his fellow Irish trainers, the English, New Zealanders, Americans, French, Germans to the Japanese.

Absurde, from the Willie Mullins stable in Ireland, with travelling companion Emilie Seigle at the Werribee International Horse Centre.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui

This quest for a three-handled trophy cannot always be rationally explained. English writer and poet Rudyard Kipling once famously told his Australian counterpart, Banjo Paterson: “You people in Australia haven’t grown up yet. You think the Melbourne Cup is the most important thing in the world.”

But the Cup, to so many at home and abroad, is worth much more than the $8 million prize pot on offer. Many of the world’s best horses, jockeys and trainers, and richest owners, have tried and failed to win the 3200-metre handicap. It continues to elude some of racing’s mightiest names – such as Coolmore’s Aidan O’Brien, whose one-time favourite Jan Brueghel was ruled out by vets last week.

Godolphin’s Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai, was said to have spent more than $1 billion before he won the race in 2018 with Cross Counter, 30 years after his first runner. Italian hoop Frankie Dettori won nine Ascot Gold Cups, a record six Prix de l’Arc de Triomphes and three Japan Cups, but infuriated punters here with several disastrous rides over 17 attempts.

“As we know, you just don’t arrive and pick up the prize,” says Mullins, 68, a champion jumps trainer who returns to Flemington with his two fancied horses, Vauban and Absurde. “Last year a lot of people had us marked down for that.”

Champion trainer Willie Mullins.Credit: Justin McManus

“Since the time I was able to read, reading all about racing or reading about the Melbourne Cup … it was more or less a dream. We’ve been coming back and trying to win it. Hopefully, this year is our year.”

The Cup has endured through wars, pandemic and economic turmoil. And while the place of the sport and the race itself in Australian culture is continuously up for debate. Its demise has been falsely proclaimed for decades, as the sport’s popularity waxed and waned.

Sydney’s Gai Waterhouse won almost every other race in Australia before finally clinching a Melbourne Cup, 20 years after being awarded her training licence.

“It means everything to me,” Waterhouse says of Cup Week in Melbourne. “I think it’s still the race to win – that’s why I love it. That’s why I want to win another one.”

Once owned by King Charles, her horse Just Fine now has more than 1000 owners who paid as little as $250 to be a part of the syndicate. She says the beauty of Australian racing – and the Cup in particular – is that it remains for everyone.

The magic of the Cup is neatly played out, too, in the ownership of Mullins’ two horses. Vauban, a $6.50 second favourite to be ridden by UK-based Norwegian jockey William Buick, is owned by an eccentric US-British millionaire investment banker, known for his trackside antics, loud check bespoke three-piece suits, trilby hat and big personality. Absurde, a $9.50 chance, was bought by a syndicate set up by a granny for her 12 grandchildren. They have now become superstitious about speaking to the media before a race.

Mullins brought his first horse to Australia in 2003, Holy Orders, who comically refused to run while in quarantine at Sandown. He eventually ran 17th, and the Irish master learnt what was required to compete, returning in 2013 with Simeon, which finished fourth.

He has been a regular visitor since, with Max Dynamite second in 2015, and then third in 2017, just in front of sixth-placed Thomas Hobson that year.

Mullins and his support staff left Flemington last year determined to make amends after Vauban started as the favourite but finished 13 lengths from the winner, Without A Fight, while Absurde finished seventh as a $9 chance. Owners agreed it was worth another shot, and it spawned a rethink of preparations.

Named after a 17th-century French military engineer who revolutionised the art of siege craft and defensive fortifications, Vauban arrived at the International Horse Centre at Werribee Racecourse later this time. Mullins ensured the seven-year-old gelding had much more racing under his belt. He won at York in August and was second to the highly rated Kyprios in the Group 1 Irish St. Leger Stakes at the Curragh in September.

Mullins says it’s ensured he’s landed fitter and stronger, having last year not raced for three months.

“We came in on the first shipment last year and I didn’t see any benefit of it,” Mullins says. “I thought they were away from home far too long, so we’ve decided to completely change tactics. Hopefully, they work.”

Fixated on every detail, he’s even been given a haircut, with Mullins acknowledging last year’s heat might have had an impact.

“We don’t get much of 30 degrees in Ireland, you know, 26, 27 tops,” Mullins says. “He got his winter coat coming out here last year, so we clipped him out this year. All the time, you’re trying to get a percentage point ahead of the rest, if you can.”

“I think you can put a line through Vauban’s run last year. His owners [Rich and Susannah Ricci] were very keen to come back and have another go, and we think he’s better than he showed last year. Hopefully, we’ll be proved right.”

Ricci too has changed his routine, keeping a lower profile this year than last. A flamboyant personality, he was for a long time depicted as the poster boy of banking excess in the UK tabloids, having received a £44 million payout when he left UK bank Barclays a decade ago after previously being co-chief executive of its investment banking arm.

Ricci was born in Ohio to Italian and German immigrant parents, but little has been chronicled about his rise to prominence in the banking sector. He famously cannot bear the stress of watching the race live, and is often seen wandering the track listening to the call. But like most of the wealthy owners, Ricci values his privacy and jealously guards it.

The horse runs under the name of his wife, Susannah, who runs a winery in the west Kent countryside. She chose their now-famed racing colours of pink and fluorescent green after having a handbag of a similar design.

“We’ve been very fortunate to race around the world and win some big races in various countries,” he said earlier this year when confirming another Cup tilt. “It’s been great to run in Japan, in Korea, in Italy, and Germany, all sorts of places. But I’ve never, ever experienced anything quite like the Melbourne Cup.”

Ricci says that while Cheltenham and Royal Ascot are the pinnacles of jumps and flat racing in Britain, the atmosphere surrounding the Melbourne Cup carnival was on another level.

“Melbourne’s different gravy. And it’s a race that I would love to win, not just because the Aussies keep taking my money, but it’s just an iconic race.”

Pressed for the pick of his two runners, Mullins diplomatically says: “Vauban’s form stands out ... But I don’t know how good the other horse is – he just keeps improving.

“Absurde has done nothing wrong, and I think he’s a horse that’s maturing all the time in his mind.”

The son of Fastnet Rock, who will be ridden by three-times Cup winning jockey Kerrin McEvoy, the seven-year-old had three hurdle starts in his homeland before embarking on his flat program, which included a last-start win in a Listed race in England in August.

He is cared for continuously by his French strapper, Emilie Seigle. The pair are inseparable, with images and videos of them on social media drawing attention.

“He’s my best mate,” Emilie told The Irish Field. “You can’t imagine what it’s like travelling across the world with him for the last two years.

“He’s different and has huge character. He’s complex. With him, you don’t have only one way – it’s a partnership. This year he’s more mature, more confident in himself. Sometimes he wants to bite me, then a few seconds later he wants a cuddle.”

She says her nerves will be “terrible” in the few hours before the race on Tuesday.

“I find it even hard in those moments to smile and speak to people. I’m really bad!”

Mullins won’t engage with the notion that the 2024 Cup field is softer than last year. He knows he will have to beat some of Australian races biggest names, like Chris Waller, the 2021 winning trainer, who has five runners: Buckaroo, Land Legend, Kovalica, Valiant King and Manzoice.

“There’s a very good favourite [Buckaroo], but he probably hasn’t got the best draw of the race. But he’s going to be hard to beat,” Mullins says.

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport are sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.