Willie Mullins set to gatecrash Royal Ascot with ‘exciting’ Gold Cup horse bought for £100,000

WILLIE MULLINS has set his sights on gatecrashing Royal Ascot – with an ‘exciting’ £100,000 horse who won on debut.

Sober will see Champagne corks popping in the winner’s enclosure if he can get close in next month’s Gold Cup.

Sober got the job done on his debut over hurdles for Willie Mullins – but it looks like big Flat races will be his target in the future

PAMullins trained Absurde to Ebor glory under Frankie Dettori – and it looks like Sober could be following a similar path, maybe with the Melbourne Cup his ultimate goal[/caption]

A two-time Group 2 winner in France, Mullins purchased the former Andre Fabre-trained runner at the Arqana Arc Sale in October last year.

Never one to rush his top talent, Mullins kept Sober, who also finished third in the Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak in 2022, to the Closutton gallops through the winter.

But the six-year-old son of Camelot was finally unleashed in a seemingly run-of-the-mill 2m4f novice hurdle at Killarney on Monday.

Initially available at 5-6, Sober was backed off the boards to win at 4-11 under Mullins’ No1 rider Paul Townend.

Although jumping didn’t really look his game – he won £275,000 racing on the Flat in France – Sober, who punters labelled an ‘exciting’ prospect, warmed to his task nicely in the end.

And after the last he always had the 120-rated runner-up Arch Empire, trained by Gordon Elliott and giving Sober 6lbs, held.

Bookies weren’t that impressed by the manner of victory, keeping him as big as 33-1 for the Ascot feature.

And he will have to improve absolutely bundles to see off the likes of Aidan O’Brien’s defending champion Kyprios.

But Mullins – who recently snapped up ‘the most exciting horse for next season’ at the sales – clearly holds Sober in high regards.

And he could be following the same path to greatness as another of his stable stars.

Ebor and County Hurdle king Absurde won the very same Killarney race two years ago.

He then went to Ascot and finished second to Vauban in the Copper Horse Handicap before winning the £300,000 York race under Frankie Dettori.

An awesome dual-purpose performer, he has picked up mega cash finishing seventh and fifth in the Melbourne Cup and recently added a Sussex Champion Hurdle to his CV.

The paralells don’t end there.

Both Absurde and Sober were bred by racing’s richest owners, the multi-billionaire brothers Alain and Gerard Wertheimer.

Bosses of luxury fashion brand Chanel, they have an estimated combined wealth of £50billion and have bred several Group 1 winners, including 2012 Arc winner Solemia and Breeders’ Cup legend Goldikova.

Townend was impressed after the debut showing – and hinted his future lies on the Flat.

He said: “Sober has got loads of ability and hopefully hurdling will just sharpen him up.

“I was losing a length at a lot of hurdles and he hangs a bit.

“He will jump well in time and I’d say it was a good performance to win.”