Emmet Mullins eyes famous double with National hero Noble Yeats

In a hay shed in a corner of County Carlow, a pair of neighbours nonchalantly talk about each having a horse that'll run both in the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup and Randox Grand National and still agree on one thing: there's no money in training.

Emmet Mullins (Noble Yeats) was thoroughly reluctant to welcome the press to his yard beside uncle Willie Mullins' in Closutton; Shark Hanlon (Hewick) merely turned up for the gig and could talk for hours.

For all the reticence befitting an enigmatic character with flashes of genius, Mullins talks at ease and relative length. Little about him is the norm.

He's pretty much everything. Was a jockey. Then a trainer. Also a breeder. A buyer and seller. Last week he was skiing.

At one point during the interview, I look downwards and Shawshank Redemption came to mind. "The guard simply didn't notice," Red narrates. "Neither did I. I mean, seriously, how often do you really look at a man's shoes?"

I often get teased for my attire on these yard visits but I've never seen a trainer, as Mullins is, wearing runners on his gallops before. And it's a pretty foul morning all told.

I ask about owner Paul Byrne, the key ally in Mullins' success so far, who owned Noble Yeats and The Shunter, the former providing Mullins with a Grand National win and the latter his first Cheltenham Festival win.

"I met Paul through my cousin Patrick and I guess we just clicked," he says. "At this stage we are friends for years and he is a great fellow, he has such a drive and a love for the game. And if he can make it pay all the better."

Do they get on because they like to think ouside the box? "We rarely are in the box," he concurs.

Mullins' success in his career has been astonishing. He started off using his neighbour Willie's gallops but, as Noble Yeats leads a string out on his new gallops – harrowed differently to Willie's, he says – a smile comes over 32-year-old's face.

"Duckett's Grove paid for that," he recalls. "He won a maiden on debut in Mallow in 2018. He was sold on and this gallop came out of that."

For all of his success, Mullins remains a trainer ready to sell, and his candid commentary on the realities of training makes one wonder how anyone is surviving in this game, let alone thriving.

"One of the greatest kicks I got was when Thebestisyettobe won on debut in Gowran last summer, it was right up there with Noble Yeats, as I bred her myself," he says.

"I'll have six of my own yearlings and horses to run during the summer as I need those to subsidize the the rest; there's no money in training.

"It's costs: everything from the hay to the feed. Everything is going up and it's so hard to attract owners. I'm not sure how other trainers are surviving. With the money owners get back, I don't know where this ends up."

The story of Noble Yeats probably sums him up better than any other horse alone. He was bought before running in a bumper, which he won, but then nobody would buy him, until he prospered, and then the Waley Cohens bought him when they happened to be at Wetherby when he finished second to Ahoy Senor; and then he only went and won the Grand National as a novice.

Oh, and Byrne was heavily involved.

"We couldn't really sell him after he won his bumper but maybe I was too honest as I told everyone he was probably going to be their best handicap chaser, if not quite Grade One quality. For whatever reason he wasn't sold," he says.

"Then he started doing well over fences and I knew he'd stay all day. The Waley Cohens couldn't have been nicer to deal with. They wouldn't have bought him, only they were racing at Wetherby when he was second to Ahoy Senor. I didn't realise Sam was going to retire after he won on him!

"I don't know (if Sam regrets retirement) now that the horse is a Gold Cup contender. He's not letting on he regrets it anyway."

Still only an eight-year-old, the bay has continued to blossom this season. Convincing wins in Wexford’s Listed M.W. Hickey Memorial Chase and in particular Aintree’s Many Clouds Chase have put him in the frame for the Boodles Gold Cup at the Cheltenham Festival in March.

A visit to Lingfield will come first as Mullins is targeting the Fleur De Lys Chase at the Winter Million meeting on Sunday week – after which all roads will lead to Cheltenham for the sport’s blue riband event.

“All going well we’re heading for Lingfield, that’s the plan at the moment,” the County Carlow trainer said. “Maybe half the reason we’re going to Lingfield is so we don’t have to take on Willie (Mullins) and Gordon (Elliott) here. We pick and choose our races I think fairly well and try to get the most out of them.

“The Many Clouds slotted in nicely and we’ll keep tipping away without showing our hand until the day that matters.”

A Grand National defence is still in the works, however, with the gelding aiming to emulate Golden Miller and L’Escargot as the only two horses to have won both the Gold Cup and the Grand National.

“The Gold Cup was on the radar for this year from the get-go," Mullins reveals. "It was definitely on the agenda. We spoke with the Waley-Cohens and all going well he was going to be aimed for the Gold Cup and try to come back for the Grand National afterward.

“I definitely wouldn’t rule him out of the Gold Cup. It’s a stayer’s race and I can compare him to something like Hedgehunter, who won the Grand National and was second in a Gold Cup afterwards. I think he can be there or thereabouts.

“We’re still heading for the National and I suppose after our performance in the Many Clouds in Aintree, we won’t be looked after too well in the weights, but I think a horse like him grows in that scenario and I can’t see any reason why we shouldn’t fancy our chances going back again.”

He added: “I hadn’t realised until I heard over the weekend that only two horses have won the Gold Cup and the Grand National. I suppose it adds to it, but I’ll be blocking that out anyway. Lucky for me and the horse it won’t register with us!”

As Mullins relieves himself of the duties bestowed upon those lucky enough to train the winner of the previous year's Grand National, the Shark devours above all and talks about having procured Cape Gentleman (off Emmet no less) for American owners. He will likely join Hewick at Aintree.

"Hewick has been incredible for us, I think we've 17 new owners registered from America since he won over there," Hanlon says.

"You wouldn't believe how important he has been. Alan King rang me and said I'd done wonders for British racing. I said 'I don't know about that' but then he relayed how owners had pulled out of buying a horse with him but the success of Hewick changed their mind."

There are gentle giants and this red-haired towering figure goes from smiling at the fun he had in America to tears when talking about the late Jack De Bromhead. You can tell they meant a lot to each other.

"Maybe only for Jack, we'd never have gone to America. It might never have happened," he says.

And with that, the two trainers housed a few miles apart head off, knowing that when there's life there's hope. And hope is maybe the best of things.