sport news HORSE POWER: Shout it from the rooftops! Thriller of a scrap for the trainers' ... trends now
It's the time of year when football managers, in the thick of a title race, sit in front of TV cameras and are economical with their views.
‘We’re just concentrating on what we do,’ they tell you, even though you both know the opposite is true. They are all aware what steps their rivals are making, who they have to play and what fixtures on the run to the line are fraught with danger.
The Premier League is so compelling this season because three giants are all matching strides approaching the final furlong: the odds-on favourite, Manchester City, might have just poked their nose in front but their two pursuers, Arsenal and Liverpool, still have plenty to give.
You won’t be able to move in the coming weeks for headlines trumpeting this absorbing contest but the same should be true, too, for racing following three remarkable days on Merseyside when three men emerged from the Randox Grand National festival with the potential to be Champion Trainer.
It will be a crying shame if racing doesn’t seize upon the unique situation where Willie Mullins, Paul Nicholls and Dan Skelton are ready to throw the kitchen sink and more at their attempt to come out on top, to draw in inquisitive sports enthusiasts who love drama and rivalries. Shout about this battle from the rooftops.
Trainer Willie Mullins (right) celebrates after I Am Maximus triumphs at The Grand National
The is now a three-horse race for Champion Trainer and it is set to be a captivating spectacle
How many new fans became hooked on Formula One on the back of the absorbing end to the 2021 season, when Max Verstappen pipped Lewis Hamilton in the final laps of the final race in Abu Dhabi? When history is on the line and protagonists are giving it everything have got, it draws you in.
And you should be drawn in. Plenty regard Mullins as the Manchester City of jump racing, with his stable full of equine stars, and his fortunes mirrored that of Pep Guardiola last Saturday, pulling off a big win to jump from third to first.
Mullins had told this observer that a title win for his stable would only be possible if he was successful in the Grand National but talk about hitting the bullseye: I Am Maximus galloped all the way to the line and ensured a £450,000 deficit was overturned in a flash.
So now we approach boiling point. Mullins will only have one runner at Cheltenham at its two-day finale meeting, which starts today, presenting Skelton – who is second in the table, £52,807 behind – and Nicholls to wrestle back the deficit.
Asked last Friday at Aintree how much he was thinking about becoming champion for the first time, Skelton said he wasn’t thinking about it all and “what will be, will be” – the tone of his answer and his body language, a bit like all those football managers, told you something different entirely.
Skeleton is a ferociously ambitious to become Champion in the same way his mentor, Nicholls, was in 2005. The title race in which he became embroiled with Martin Pipe back then was staggering, in terms of the lengths the stables were going to for prize money.
Pipe, who was then king of the hill, ran one horse called Commercial Flyer three times
