Willie Mullins
Far and away the most successful trainer in the history of the Cheltenham Festival and, since March 13, 2026, jointly the most successful trainer in the history of the Cheltenham Gold Cup – alongside Tom Dreaper, the trainer of Arkle – perennial Irish Champion National Hunt Trainer Willie Mullins requires little or no introduction. From his base at Closutton, Bagenalstown, County Carlow, Mullins sent out his first Cheltenham Festival winner, Tourist Attraction, in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle in 1995. Fast forward three decades or so and victory for Gaelic Warrior in the Cheltenham Gold Cup took his career tally to an eye-watering 121 winners, 43 more than his nearest pursuer, Nicky Henderson.
At the Cheltenham Festival, Mullins has won the leading trainer award 13 times since 2011, including the last eight years in a row, and saddled a record 10 winners over the four days in both 2022 and 2025. For all his success elsewhere, he was a relative latecomer to Cheltenham Gold Cup glory, having endured a frustrating sequence of second-place finishes, courtesy of Florida Pearl (2000), Hedgehunter (2006), Sir Des Champs (2013), On His Own (2014), Djakadam (2015 and 2016).
However, in 2019, shortly before his appointment as Mullins’ stable jockey, Paul Townend steered Al Boum Photo – only the third choice of four Mullins-trained entries, according to the bookmakers, at 12/1 – to a two-and-a-half-length victory in the ‘Blue Riband’ event, to finally lay the Gold Cup hoodoo to rest. Shortly afterwards, Mullins admitted, “I thought I might never win a Gold Cup.”
Al Boum Photo defended his title, albeit narrowly, in 2020 and three years later Mullins was back in the winners’ enclosure at Prestbury Park, courtesy of his latest star staying chaser, Galopin Des Champs, who justified favouritism in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 2023 and did so again in 2024. Galopin Des Champs was carried out on his shield after finishing a creditable second on his hat-trick attempt in 2025, but Mullins extended his enviable recent record by winning the Gold Cup with another favourite, Gaelic Warrior, ridden, like his four previous winners, by Paul Townend, in 2026.