Nick Rockett, ridden to victory at Aintree by Willie Mullins’ son Patrick, could end up tackling the Cheltenham Gold Cup this season, the trainer has now announced
Willie Mullins has set Grand National winner Nick Rockett on the same path as two-time Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs.
The champion trainer enjoyed ‘the highlight of his life’ when Nick Rockett carried son Patrick to a famous Aintree victory back in April when he saw off stablemate and 2024 winner I Am Maximus and Grangeclare West to complete a stable 1-2-3. That victory has opened new opportunities for the eight-year-old who has won his last three starts over fences.
Mullins said on Wednesday: “He’s quite entitled to go back for the Grand National but I think he deserves a Gold Cup entry. I thought his performance last year in the National was very good, he has all the attributes for a Gold Cup entry this year.”
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He went on: “I think Nick Rockett winning with Patrick riding him was maybe the highlight of my life. As a father, putting your son up to win a Grand National is huge. Ted Walsh knows all about that, but I got a great kick out of it.”
Mullins’s star staying chaser Galopin Des Champs was thwarted in his bid for an historic hat-trick of Gold Cup victories at the Cheltenham Festival in March when he was second to Iknowthewayurthinkin. He bounced back from that six-length defeat with a wide margin win in the Punchestown Gold Cup to end his campaign.
Mullins, outlining early plans at the HRI jumps season launch, said of him: “I think the Gold Cup will be his aim again. He’s nine so he’s young enough to have another go at the Gold Cup again and be a real potent force.
“He ran really well last year, he was just beaten over the last fence but I think he’s still got enough in him to be a real contender this year.”
The trainer said Il Etait Temps who dished out a comprehensive beating to Jonbon on his only start in the Celebration Chase at Sandown could take part in a rematch in the Tingle Creek Chase at Sandown.
“We might try and get a run into him before that in the Clonmel Oil Chase,” he said. “If that form is proper form he’s going to be a real addition to our top chasing ranks.” Ballyburn, a Cheltenham Festival winner as a novice hurdler in 2023 but defeated when odds-on favourite for the Brown Advisory Chase in March, will return to smaller obstacles.
“He just didn’t really take to chasing and I’m thinking he’d have to really kick up a gear this year, out of novice company into Grade Ones,” Mullins said. “He might be better off sticking to the long-distance hurdle races which might be easier for him.”