Willie Mullins makes Cheltenham Festival history with Jasmin De Vaux taking him to 100 wins
Willie Mullins is on cloud nine with a century of Cheltenham Festival wins thanks to Jasmin De Vaux's victory, ridden by his son, in the Champion Bumper.
The Irish trainer started the week needing six victories to become the first person to record 100 Festival winners and did so on day two at Cheltenham.
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It seemed only a matter of when, not if, Mullins would land the record after an extraordinary double-header victory at the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase and Champions Hurdle on Wednesday afternoon.
He missed out on the Coral Cup, the feature race of the day which looked like it could provide Mullins the perfect stage to land his 100th win at the Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase.
But he eventually got it in the final race of day two as Jasmin De Vaux motored down the final straight to pip Romeo Coolio to the post.
Mullins' horse was ridden by his son, Patrick. Mullins Sr won the Champion Bumper as a jockey himself.
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After Jonbon was withdrawn this morning by fellow iconic trainer Nicky Henderson, El Fabiolo was the clear favourite to win the Champion Chase, but the 2/9 favourite nearly fell at the first hurdle before being pulled up in shock circumstances.
Ballyburn, Jimmy Du Seuil, Ile Atlantique, Mercurey and Predators Gold were the first five past the post at the Champions Hurdle all hailing from Mullins' stable earlier in the day.
And Fact To File stormed to a win at the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase, though not as convincingly as Ballyburn.
After Ballyburn swept home the win earlier on Wednesday, Mullins said: “What a performance.
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"Paul says he looks keener than he really is because of his head carriage.
"He could be anything, that was a Champions Hurdle performance in my book but you’d also love to go chasing with his pedigree.
"I’ll have a word with the owners before we make a plan for next season.”
Ballyburn, who was the clear favourite before the race, was winner number 98 for the 67-year-old as Queen Camilla watched on at Cheltenham, while Fact To File became number 99.
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