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Horse racing tips: Bet365 Gold Cup 14-1 pick plus 1-2-3-4 for last major race of jumps season

mirror.co.uk — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 17:00:00 +0000

Willie Mullins has ten runners in the bet365 Gold Cup, making it highly likely he will land the prize again and collect the British jumps trainers’ championship

Willie Mullins (green tie) celebrates at Sandown 12 months ago(Image: PA)

Stand by for an epic climax to the 2024-25 jumps campaign. Willie Mullins and Dan Skelton take their gripping head-to-head for the trainers’ championship to the last day of the season.

The pair have been locked in a daily battle since Mullins claimed an unprecedented 1-2-3 in the Grand National to put himself right on the heels of longtime leader Skelton, who has never won the title. The contest, which is determined by prize-money, has ebbed and flowed every day and it will go down to the wire on Saturday at Sandown which hosts the bet365 Jumps Finale.

Mullins jointly holds both the Irish and British jumps trainers’ titles, sealing his first British championship last April when Minella Cocooner landed the bet365 Gold Cup in an end of season spree which included victories in the Grand National and Scottish Grand National.

This time he has followed success at Aintree with another victory in the Scottish Grand National and has declared ten, half the field, in the feature handicap of a meeting when £685,000 up for grabs.

Dan Skelton compares final day battle with Willie Mullins to ‘facing the executioner’

mirror.co.uk — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 15:11:59 +0000

Despite holding a small prize-money advantage over his Irish rival for the British jumps trainer’s championship, Skelton appeared to concede the race on Thursday

Dan Skelton: appears to have accepted his fate in the jumps trainers’ championship (Image: Getty Images)

Dan Skelton appeared to have accepted his fate in the gripping 2024-25 British trainers’ championship battle with Willie Mullins on Thursday. Skelton, who has yet to win the crown, has led the title race for most of the campaign and will go into Saturday’s bet365 Jumps Finale day at Sandown still holding a small prize-money advantage over his Irish rival.

Yet such is the firepower at Mullins’s disposal that he has made 21 declarations for the meeting, including 10, half the field, in the bet365 Gold Cup, while Skelton has declared nine, a mismatch that bookmakers believe make victory for 1-12 chance Mullins inevitable..

Skelton, who has trained 175 winners and earned more than £3.3 million in prize-money this season, added to his score at Warwick and has more chances on Friday before the weekend.

Yet after a win at Warwick, he…

Willie Mullins’s 21-runner final day squad on way after overcoming lorry-load of trouble

mirror.co.uk — Thu, 24 Apr 2025 14:58:56 +0000

The champion trainer’s huge team for Sandown’s Finale meeting on Saturday hit an early morning transport problem before they set off on Thursday

One of Willie Mullins’s horseboxes would not start on Thursday(Image: Hugh Routledge/Shutterstock)

Willie Mullins’s path towards a second British jumps trainers’ championship hit a bump in the road on Thursday. While the reigning British and Irish champion jumps trainer closes in on a second title double on the track, off the track preparations have been less smooth.

Despite trailing leader Dan Skelton in the title race determined by prize-money, Mullins is 1-12 with bookmakers to seal the contest on bet365 Jumps Finale Day at Sandown on Saturday. Mullins has declared 21 horses for the meeting, ten of which which will run in the feature prize, the bet365 Gold Cup.

The record-breaking trainer is used to transporting a large number of horses by ferry to Britain from his Closutton base in Co Carlow.

But on Thursday he had to overcome an unexpected hiccup when one of the lorries due to transport the horses would not start, causing an early-morning…