Shock as Willie Mullins-trained Cheltenham Festival hopeful sold to Australia for €1.2 million

One of Willie Mullins most talented and best known horses has been sold in a sensational sale worth over €1 million.

Recent Melbourne Cup challenger, Vauban, is to remain in Australia having been purchased by Australian Bloodstock in partnership with Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott for $2 million AUD (just over €1.2 million)

The talented six-year-old was owned by Rich Ricci and brilliantly captured the 2022 Triumph Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival before embarking on a career over hurdles and on the flat.

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He was attempting to win the Melbourne Cup for the second time last week at Flemington but came up short once again and afterwards Mullins hinted that he could train him for the 2025 Paddy Power Stayers' Hurdle at the Festival.

Vauban and Mullins' Absurde finished 14th as the 9-2 favourite and Absurde seventh in 2023. However they only marginally improved their finishing places last Tuesday with Vauban 11th and Absurde, fifth.

Mullins said in the aftermath: “Vauban if he comes back, would he go for a Stayers’ Hurdle or something like that? I think that would be a possibility if Rich (Ricci) wants to do that, if he wants to stay on the Flat (he could) go to Saudi.

“He probably wasn’t good enough to win a Champion Hurdle and didn’t jump well enough, but going half a mile an hour slower over an extended trip might suit him better, and he’d be a class horse in that division I think.”

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But it has now been confirmed that he will stay in Australia and is expected to be trained for next year's Melbourne Cup again and will be sent for a summer spell Down Under in New South Wales before joining the Waterhouse-Bott stable over summer.

A winner of eight of his 21 starts, of which eight starts (and three wins) were over hurdles, Vauban came to Melbourne this year on the back of a second placing to the world’s leading stayer Kyprios in the Irish St Leger at The Curragh.

The Daily Telegraph reported yesterday that millionaire banker Ricci is to pocket almost £16m from the sale of the the Aquis exchange group, which sold for £194m.

American born Ricci, who owns several horses with Mullins, is one of the largest shareholders in Aquis and stands to make £15.54m from the deal.

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