Mullins starting to loom ominously in wing mirror of Skelton

Willie Mullins demonstrated why he is not to be ruled out of the British National Hunt trainers’ title race after a remarkable Grade One four-timer at Aintree.

Dan Skelton held a significant lead going into the first day of the Grand National meeting and looked in a far more secure position than 12 months ago, when the margin by which he led the championship was decimated by Mullins’ dominance.

The latter would go on to lift the trophy, but that will be a far harder task this season as the Skelton team arrived in Liverpool with an almost unassailable lead ahead of Paul Nicholls, Nicky Henderson and Mullins respectively.

All bar Skelton have National runners, however, and Mullins could hardly have started the three-day fixture on a more profitable note when winning the first four races on the card – all of which were Grade Ones.

The Skelton stable is far from out of form though, and Live Conti and Grey Dawning placing in the 4-Y-O Juvenile Hurdle and the Bowl respectively were valuable results, but both times the horse in front was Mullins-trained.

Skelton remains at the head of affairs by some way, but Mullins has already overtaken Henderson to rise to third in the table behind Nicholls and his hand in the National looks a strong one as reigning champion I Am Maximus is the current favourite and described by his trainer as “exactly where I want him”.

On winning the trainers’ title again, Mullins – whose British success last year was the first for an Irish-based handler since Vincent O’Brien in the 1950s – said: “I wouldn’t be worried if I was Dan, he seems to have the thing fairly solid at the moment.

“I can’t see us winning it unless we win the Grand National and Dan has a complete flop, which doesn’t happen.

“We had an extraordinary year last year and we’re a lot more behind this year.”

Patrick Mullins, who is assistant to his father, added: “It’s a good start and the Grand National is going to be the key, but that’s a long way away yet.

“He’s prepared for it, we’re not all guns blazing like last year but in case something won the Grand National, we’ve enough here that we can’t say we left it behind if that’s the case.”

When Skelton – who also had a four-timer, albeit of runner-up finishes – was asked if he was starting to feel the pressure, he said: “Not at this point, no. We’ll see how the next couple of days go and we’ll see about the Grand National, but not at the moment.

“I’m not worried yet. If Willie does beat us again that would be borderline unnecessary!”