Willie Mullins has trained some of the best bumper horses in the last 20 years – but few have set the pulse racing quite like Facile Vega, who demolished a high-class field in the Goffs Future Stars Flat Race at Leopardstown.
With €100,000 euro up for grabs the race is worth more than the Cheltenham equivalent and has a rich history with Envoi Allen and Appreciate It recent winners.
By the excellent National Hunt stallion Walk In The Park, who has produced the likes of Douvan, Min and Jonbon, the winner's dam is Quevega – guided by Willie Mullins to win six times at the Cheltenham Festival.
Stablemate Embassy Gardens ensured there was no hanging around and when Paul Nolan's well-regarded Sandor Clegane moved up to challenge a real raced looked on.
However, those thoughts were soon put to bed as Patrick Mullins moved up on his outside and breezed on by, pulling clear to win by an eased-down 12 lengths.
Mullins senior said: "He showed one day last year that he was good, but he got sore after it and I just put him away for this year.
"I just didn't want to work him and I'd say that's the fastest he's gone all year.
"Today was the day to find out whether he was as good as I hoped he could be.
"That was a good field of horses and everyone that came up there today would have refused a lot of money for their horses before the race.
"I had huge respect for them and I was lining up in the race thinking I had a good horse, but looking at the other horses in the race and what they had done and what they had won. I thought am I sort of half-mad, but he's even better than I thought he was.
"He looks like the real deal."
Asked if he would go to Cheltenham, where he is odds-on with a number of firms, the Clossuton handler added: "That's where we'll go with him. I'll just keep him right now, that's the whole thing."
Patrick Mullins said: "That was pretty 'wow!'
"We went a good gallop and when I turned in and gave him a bit of rein, he lengthened his stride. He is a bit special, I'd say.
"It's very unusual for good racemares to have very good progeny, but Quevega was always a bit different."
