Horse Racing
Emmet Mullins hoping to do justice to historic Coolcullen
Emmet Mullins is excited to see what the future holds after buying Jim Bolger’s historic yard.
Mullins has spent the early years of his training career based beside his uncle Willie Mullins at Closutton, saddling Grade One and Cheltenham Festival winners, landing last season’s Irish Grand National with Soldier In Milan and most notably winning the Grand National at Aintree with Noble Yeats in 2022.
Together with owner Paul Byrne, the young handler is now ready to take the next step in his career after buying Glebe House, from where Bolger has sent out almost 3,000 winners including multiple Classic victors on both sides of the Irish Sea.
“It’s a very exciting opportunity to get. I’m delighted to be able to go up to Coolcullen next season and I suppose the record the gallop has speaks for itself – it’s a huge opportunity,” Mullins – who will now have a much-increased focus on the Flat – told Sky Sports Racing.
“You’re always hoping you get that sort of an opportunity. It has world-renowned gallops and it’s had great results for decades now. Jim has built it into a serious operation.
“It’s not very often something like this comes to the table and fingers crossed we’ll be able to make a good stab at it next season.”
Mullins has some insight into the workings of the Coolcullen yard, with his uncle and also cousin Danny having both spent some time working under Bolger’s watchful eye.
He added: “Danny actually spent a bit of time up there and Willie will have been up there before him, so we have a little a bit of inside information, but I’m sure not as much as what Jim can pass on to me hopefully.
“As daunting a task as it is – maintaining Jim’s standards of the facilities is going to be one of the biggest asks, I think – hopefully we can do it justice and keep it looking in such a fantastic way.”
Mullins, who will not be making the short trip across the Carlow-Kilkenny border until next year, is under no illusions about the task ahead of him as he prepares to move to a yard with around 150 boxes.
“There’s no real timeline at the moment. We’ll still concentrate on everything we have here at home for the time being and I’d imagine it will be into next season before we start to make some plans. Hopefully that will all gather pace next year,” he said.
“It’s going to be a big jump in numbers for me, hopefully, in time. I know it won’t happen overnight, we’re operating at about 45 stables currently and to have access to so many stables will be exciting. I suppose we’ll have to make use of them and it will be a kick up the backside to try to take that next step.
“Hopefully it will all pay off. I will make plenty of mistakes in the next year to 18 months. We’re dipping our toe in, finding out where we are with what we’ve got and what’s needed for the future going forward.”
