Willie Mullins: my stable stars for the 2023-24 Jumps season

Allaho had a very unusual injury last year, I think it was around this time. He came back from the gallops and he displayed signs of colic and yet we couldn’t find any colic in him. All his vitals were all right but it transpired he had a bleed on his spleen which is very unusual, I’ve never heard of it before in a horse.

He’s a huge horse, about the biggest in the yard, and one of the things with big horses is they can carry weight easier over longer trips but sometimes it makes it tricky carrying their own weight over their career.

But he’s in great shape this year and I’m very happy with him and he’ll probably start off in the Clonmel Oil, I think he’s ready for that and hopefully he’ll be back for the Ryanair again if we can.

People will maybe say the Gold Cup but I think the trip is too long for him. He’s good around Cheltenham over that Ryanair trip.

Blue Lord is another pencilled in for the Clonmel Oil Chase. He was very impressive at Leopardstown over two miles but we know he stays two and a half. I don’t want to go much further with him I think.

“So he will go down the two to two-and-a-half-mile route. Champion Chase, Ryanair Chase are the type of race we will look at and we will see where he puts himself after a couple of races. We will start off at the Clonmel Oil and then go back to that race at Christmas that he won last season.

Dysart Dynamo’s ability seems to be the fact that he can jump and gallop from the start and he probably needs nice ground to do that. I think he is a Poplar Square chaser, start him off at Naas and we will take the two-mile route with him for the rest of the season I think.

He’s our replacement at this stage of time for Energumene. I think he will start off in the Hilly Way, I think that is the place to go. Then plan a route to Cheltenham.

Ferny is making very slow progress, we were not very happy with him at all last spring and we decided to give him the summer off and reports are a lot better now given more time. I’m hoping we just give him all the time that he wants, he is too good a horse to put by the wayside at this stage.

I don’t think we’ll make a plan for him this season, if anything it will be the very end of the season, but I wouldn’t be putting him in any 10 to follow or anything like that.

He looks the obvious horse to stay going for the Aintree Grand NationaL. I’m wondering which direction to go with him and I know I want to get a few more runs into him this year.

Whether I start him off over hurdles or fences, the Aintree National will be the main target and I have no plan made for him at this stage. But he might have three or four runs before the big one.

I’m happy enough (with him) and I know the John Durkan is a week nearer the start of the season this year which is probably better and I assume we go there,” added Mullins.

I imagine I will try to do what I did last year with him and keep the same routine. He will set off there and hopefully he will be all right and then Christmas at Leopardstown, then the Dublin Racing Festival and then on to Cheltenham and Punchestown.

Impaire Et Passe is staying hurdling. Connections are keen to have a crack at the Champion Hurdle. I’m not sure if that decision was made before the Constitution Hill one or not, but I think he has a fair crack at the Champion Hurdle.

He won the Ballymore, the only reason he ran in that was because we had Facile Vega in the Supreme, so that is the route he will go down. If he improves any little bit – he’ll probably have to improve a fair bit to beat Constitution Hill – but I think he can and that is the decision we’ve made. I think he might start in the Hatton’s Grace.

Lossiemouth could go for the Champion Hurdle or the Mares’ Hurdle but it will more than likely be the Mares’ Hurdle. I haven’t decided where I will start her yet as she had a busy enough season last season, she’s only four. We’d probably like to run her at Christmas, Dublin Festival and Cheltenham so whether she runs before Christmas, I’ve not decided and might just keep her fresh.

I was very happy how he came out of the season with his two runs and he is in great shape on the gallops. I imagine I will start him off over hurdles, just to get a run under his belt and then I would hope to go back chasing, that’s the plan anyhow.

So far so good and his health problems have been no problem this season. Who knows he may get a Gold Cup entry, if all goes well.

He won well the first day and I think he jumped poorly enough after that. He was just beaten in the WillowWarm Gold Cup at Fairyhouse, he jumped well I think that day and was just beaten.

We were wondering did he not stay and his pedigree suggests he should stay much further than that. He is horse who I think if I can get his jumping right, then he should stay over fences.

I’m not sure which trip, at one stage I thought he could be a Champion Hurdle horse when he won his maiden hurdle in Leopardstown and then we went out in trip with him because he didn’t jump well enough. We know he has the ability to jump well when he wants to.

What we might do is if things don’t go well over fences in the early part of the season, I might switch him to be a staying hurdler. That’s the way I’m looking at him, but I would rather stay over fences if I can get his jumping right.

I think when you can win four Grade Ones in Ireland – every horse is only one gallop away from an injury – it’s all to play for. Constitution Hill has to get there and so do we, so we just felt that he could earn his keep easier over hurdles, that was the main reason (for staying over hurdles).

The obvious race is the Morgiana. It’s hard to see him beating Constitution Hill, but I’m hoping he’ll improve. The two of them (State Man and Impaire Et Passe) will get entries in both the Morgiana and Hatton’s Grace, the two could run in either, it will depend on who is ready first. Whoever runs in the Morgiana, we might let the other go for the Hatton’s Grace.