Willie Mullins in Perth Festival push for history as 4 declared for Day 1 in jumps trainers' title bid

Willie Mullins is shifting his Scottish assault onto Perth as he goes all-out for a place in the history books.

The Closutton maestro is attempting to become just the second Irishman to land the UK Jumps Trainers’ title, 70 years after compatriot Vincent O’Brien landed the second of his successes. Mullins rattled off a winning four-timer home at Ayr last Saturday, including Scottish Grand National hero Macdermott - a week after winning the big one at Aintree - to strengthen his iron grip on the crown. With the championship race ending at Sandown on Saturday, he’s not letting up and has declared four runners for Wednesday’s card at Scone Palace Park.

Dr Eggman, Loughglynn, Instit and Figaroc will run for Mullins on day one of the three-day meeting and he also has 14 more entries over Thursday and Friday. Perth’s opening contests include a fabulous mares clash between Gordon Elliott’s Riviere D’Etel, Gavin Cromwell’s Malina Girl and Lucinda Russell’s Apple Away. Mullins hasn’t had runners at Perth since 2016 when he was also chasing the title that was snared by rival Paul Nicholls.

He currently enjoys a healthy lead over nearest-challengers Nicholls and Dan Skelton in the 2024 fight and Perth’s Director of Racing Matthew Taylor said: “The quality is there like never before, so we’re really excited to kick on. Willie Mullins has declared four runners, including one in each of the three big races, so he’s clearly coming to try to seal the trainers’ championship.

“The Listed mares’ chase has attracted a great cast and the Listed novice hurdle always has good horses running in it, with Giovinco and Mahler Mission successful in it in the last two years. There are some really good horses from all over, which is really good