Mullins: "We pinch ourselves...this is a time of year I love"

Even the dogs in Closutton are happy.

Your writer is no expert on breeding but at least two of Willie Mullins' canine colleagues – one of them young and tiny, the other young and huge – are taken aback by the large crowd of journalists listening to the champion trainer extoling on Wednesday afternoon.

In his and wife Jackie's quaint living room where plans are made and an extraordinary family lives a relatively ordinary life, one of the pups is trying to overcome the barrier of his size to jump on the couch; the other, who has no such issues, has two goes at robbing a woolly hat from the bag of Emma Nagle, daughter of trainer Tom and doing some filming on her smartphone.

Eventually the larger dog starts sniffing around two of the journalists' pockets. "He knows where the money is," Mullins remarks.

This, he admits with a warm smile by a warm fire on a warm day for late October, is a time of the year he loves. Last year’s Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle winner The Nice Guy is set to be out for the season, he reveals, and he is only waiting for the next big hope to suffer a setback – but mainly he marvels.

"It's brilliant, this time of year. Every morning I go up to the gallop, and look at what I look at; you know, myself, Jackie and Patrick, we pinch ourselves – especially myself and Jackie as Patrick is probably more used to it; when we came here we'd about six horses. To see the type of talent that's out there now, not only the equine talent but the human talent...

"Even take the likes of Imran Haider."

Imran could have been excused a celebration but we saw him earlier, relaying information to Mullins, despite only last night scooping the Irish Stable Staff award for Barn Manager & Work Rider.

"To have fellas like that around the place, and all the jockeys who come in to ride out. My travelling head man, when he came to work for us, put everything up a notch. All these things take things up a notch.

"Now, that's brilliant but over the next few weeks, we've already horses out for the season. You are looking at December 1 and we'll probably have another five or six horses out and that's so disappointing.

"The next work can be head-wrecking, putting the horses through their paces. The lucky ones get through. Often it takes me anywhere up to a week or ten days to tell an owner the disappointment. I am lucky enough but I can feel bad for five minutes – that could be the trainer down the road's Champion Hurdler, his only Grade 1 horse."

Mullins took pride in how a minor setback for Energumene pre-Cheltenham last year not only failed to leave the yard in terms of information but barely left the horse's stable itself – he's an old-school trainer in many ways, and not ashamed of that, already looking forward to the sporting concept of celebrating Cheltenham winners he doesn't even train.

On the Champion Hurdle, he reckons Honeysuckle is very much the horse to beat. "I thought she was a great price the other day when I looked at the television and saw she was around 7-2. I took a picture and showed it to Ruby [Walsh] and David Casey, I asked them if something (were) wrong.

"We have a few down the bottom of that [ante-post] list who we hope could get in there yet, but she looks a huge price at this stage of the year. Maybe Constitution Hill has wings and I'll gladly celebrate with owner Michael Buckley if he wins – even if he beats me. I wish them the best of luck this season."

If Mullins is old-school, Michael O'Leary is from another school and talk of the pair's reunion has it not, it transpires, been greatly exaggerated. This might be the first time that the champion trainer was asked publicly about it but, sheepish at first, he soon warmed to a flow of words that suggested he expected to be asked at some stage.

Six years have passed since it was announced O'Leary and Mullins were splitting. O'Leary was then supposed to be leaving the game altogether – but even he can admit he was wrong.

“No one fell out and I always remained very friendly with Eddie and Michael and the family,” said Mullins. “Someone mooted I should have a few horses back and I said no problem. There was no great meeting or anything, it was very simple.

“It’s great to have them back and they are a huge team in Irish racing. They are good for Irish racing with all the money they put through the system in terms of sponsorship and buying horses from the point-to-point field. The amount of value Gigginstown give to Irish racing is immense and they have shown that over the years.

"They aren’t afraid to put their money where their mouth is and that is a great asset to have as an owner and we are delighted to be back together as a team.”

Earlier, Mullins had shown us around his gallops, which had some of the press struggling at walking pace – the sort of depth that makes horses fit without them knowing it, and those we saw seemed full of themselves.

Energumene does his own thing. Mullins treats Facile Vega as though he were the greatest he ever had. Maybe he'll be right.

As he converses with the riders, a striking number of them are speaking in a French accent. Many others have clearly come from even further away.

It may be hard to get staff – but these ones know they are living the dream.