LEGENDARY ENGLISH jockey Richard Johnson has put forward who he thinks will threaten Willie Mullins’ dominance in the future.
There has been much discourse in the horse racing world over the choke hold Mullins has over the sport’s top Festivals.
Heading into this year’s Cheltenham Festival, the iconic Irish trainer is set to show his dominance once again.
Johnson was speaking to The Winners Enclosure ahead of the Festival, which gets underway on March 12.
The former jockey believes that young English trainer Harry Derham can pose a threat to Mullins in the years ahead.
Johnson said: “At the moment, the Irish have got the best horses. They’re sourcing them and at the moment they appear to have the financial power to buy them as well.
“To see an owner like Rich Ricci with Willie (Mullins), I’m sure Willie can buy these horses because he’s got a number of very good horses running at the moment.
“I think that there’s only a small bracket (of owners) who can keep buying those expensive horses. Willie, Gordon Elliott and Henry De Bromhead are all brilliant, they also have some which cost a lot of money who aren’t that great.
“It’s a bit of guesswork when you go to the sales to buy them – they may look amazing, but sometimes they might not be as quick as you hope they are.
“At the moment the Irish have got the cream of the crop. At the moment, we’ve got some very good horses in Britain, but they’ve definitely got the bigger share of them and we’ve got to improve to try and get some better ones.
“It’s not an easy route to go down to decide you want to be a trainer, financially it’s a very brave thing to do.
“There’s an awful lot of young trainers out there, but Harry Derham is up there. He only trained his first winner on Boxing Day 2022, so in just over 12 months he’s come a hugely long way, so he’s one of the future stars.”
“You need a bit of luck – I didn’t realise that when I first started riding. I thought that the fitter you got them, the more races they’d win.
“But now as I’m a bit older I realise that if the horse isn’t healthy, it doesn’t matter how good they are they won’t win.”