Willie Mullins has Royal Ascot goal with first runner for King Charles and Queen Camilla

Willie Mullins’s record-breaking exploits have caught the attention of the King and Queen. The record-breaking jumps trainer last month completed another extraordinary jumps season in which he was crowned champion in both Ireland and Britain for the second season in succession and saddled the 1-2-3 in the Grand National.

The all-time winningest trainer at the has established an enviable depth of equine talent with the support of many of the sport’s leading owners. Until now that did not include the Royal couple whose mostly Flat racehorse string is generally divided among the top British stables of Andrew Balding, John & Thady Gosden, William Haggas, Ralph Beckett and Nicky Henderson.

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But in the wake of the retirement of Sir Michael Stoute, one of his former runners has been sent to Ireland to continue his career with Mullins.

Reaching High, who was bred by Queen Elizabeth II, raced eight times for Stoute, winning his only race at Wolverhampton in August last year.

The four-year-old gelding is a son of Estimate, the champion staying mare who gave the late Queen her most memorable moment at when winning the Ascot Gold Cup in 2013. He is believed to be the first horse owned by a reigning British monarch to be trained in Ireland.

Reaching High has been declared to make his debut on the Flat in a Lady Riders Handicap at Leopardstown on Friday night. He will be ridden by top amateur Jody Townend, sister of Mullins’s jumps stable jockey Paul Townend.

Mullins told , “We were introduced to and at Royal Ascot last year. The next thing we got a phone call asking if we would take a horse for them.

“I said I would be delighted and Reaching High arrived shortly afterwards. We have schooled him over hurdles and had hoped to get a run into him over jumps recently but it didn’t work out.

“The plan is to run him in a lady riders’ race at Leopardstown on Friday night. Jody Townend will ride him and, looking further ahead, he could be a contender for the Ascot Stakes over two and a half miles on the opening day of Royal Ascot. His pedigree is all stamina, so those kind of races could suit him.”