Emmet Mullins is an extraordinary trainer, even for a Mullins.
We suspected there was something different about him when he expertly managed The Shunter through a hurdling and chasing campaign to scoop a Cheltenham Festival jackpot in 2021.
Other shrewd coups followed. And any doubts that Willie’s nephew wasn’t just “one of the bottles”, but a vintage talent, were dispersed when, still in his early thirties, he saddled the young novice chaser Noble Yeats to win the Grand National the following spring.
“He’s incredibly imaginative,” said Noble Yeats’s owner Robert Waley-Cohen as Mullins produced another out-of-the-box trick to win a Grade Two Hurdle at Cheltenham in January as part of his unorthodox preparation for another tilt at Aintree glory this Saturday.
But Emmet is not one to live on past glories. Always thinking ahead, sometimes miles ahead, there are new goals with new horses and typically he’s not pussyfooting around.
Corbetts Cross is his latest project. He was arguably the easiest winner at last month’s Cheltenham Festival and though he beat ordinary opposition in the weakest of the novice chases, we know we must take him extremely seriously as he makes an early pitch into the big-time at Aintree on Thursday afternoon.
Like The Shunter and Noble Yeats, Corbetts Cross was sold into current ownership by Paul Byrne, who seems to have a magic touch of his own when it comes to identifying untapped equine talent.
He was already sporting the familiar green and gold silks of JP McManus when crashing out at the final hurdle in a Grade One novice at Cheltenham last spring. Mullins thought he would win that day and was gutted, but confident there would be much better times ahead.
Aintree Grand National Festival tips, day one
- 1.45pm Grey Dawning Evens
- 2.20pm Sir Gino 5-6
- 2.55pm Corbetts Cross (Best Bet) 4-1
- 3.30pm Bob Olinger 7-4
- 4.05pm Lieutenant Rocco (Each Way) 28-1
- 4.40pm Path D’oroux (Next Best) 7-1
- 5.15pm Honky Tonk Highway 9-2
Odds correct on 10 April per Oddschecker
There have been and on Thursday there might well be another one. Gold Cup runner-up Gerri Colombe and Shishkin, brilliant on his day, stand in his way in the Aintree Bowl, but both are vulnerable for different reasons.
And it is striking that Mullins and McManus could have opted for easier options at this fixture or elsewhere, so they have clearly calculated that on this testing ground and in these circumstances, Corbetts Cross has a great shot at one of this fixture’s most prestigious prizes, outside of the National.
Unlike Corbetts Cross, Gerri Colombe had to give his all at Cheltenham and it would be no great surprise if Ahoy Senor, runner-up to Shishkin in this race last April but generally out of sorts this season, also outpointed the likely favourite at a track that brings out the best in him.
Shishkin is another story. At his best he would take some beating, but of course we don’t know – even his trainer Nicky Henderson doesn’t know for sure – how he will fare on his first start since a nasty bug in the yard caused him to miss Cheltenham last month.
Hopefully, his classy young stablemate Sir Gino, another not risked in the Cotswolds, will have taken away some of the doubt in the preceding Anniversary Hurdle.
He bolted up on Cheltenham trials day and should have nothing to fear from a much-of-a-muchness Irish juvenile crop if he’s on the same song.