‘Best day ever’ for Willie Mullins, as son Patrick claims National success

When a man who has achieved just about everything in the game calls it his “best day ever”, you get some sense of what Willie Mullins was feeling having watched his amateur jockey son Patrick ride Nick Rockett to glory in the Randox Grand National.

Not only that, Mullins was also second with last year’s winner I Am Maximus, third with Grangeclare West and fifth with Meetingofthewaters in an achievement that runs Michael Dickinson’s first five in the 1983 Cheltenham Gold Cup very close.

While he is based in County Carlow in Ireland, Mullins is so dominant he won the UK trainers’ championship last term, but this year did not make much of an effort in the early stages and found himself a long way behind Dan Skelton.

However, having won the lion’s share of £1million in one race, he is now odds-on with the bookies to keep the title.

“You couldn’t write the script today, four of the first five. When Patrick was born, I said if he gets one or two rides in the National he’s done well,” said Mullins, who was emulating Ted Walsh and Tommy Carberry in winning with the National with his son.

“Then he did a bit more than that, but then we started to think could we get a horse with enough weight to give him a chance in the National – but we never dreamt of winning it.

“Watching it all come together – I watched it in JP’s (McManus) box and I was just doing my best to breathe. Patrick was in a fantastic position but then I saw two or three of our other runners come there with a chance.

“When they came to the elbow, I honestly thought I Am Maximus was coming to beat him but I thought ‘well Patrick’s had a great spin’. But then when Patrick got him on the rail and kept squeezing, he began to pull away again.

“I think this is the summit for me, I don’t think it can get any better than this. Now I now how Ted Walsh felt, I never thought I’d have that feeling, but here we are.

“Of course we’ll give the title another go now, it looks like it could be on again, to get first, second, third and fifth – we’ll have to improve and get fourth next year!

“This is the best day ever, this will never be topped.”

On top of the emotion of watching his son ride the winner, Mullins was thinking of the late wife of owner, Stewart Andrew, an old school friend who died just days after watching Nick Rockett run in his first race.

“We went to school together when we were five or six years of age,” explained Mullins.

“I hadn’t seen her then for years, but then one day I met her at Cheltenham and she said she’d get a horse with her husband and sent it to me and it turned out to be Nick Rockett.

“Poor Sadie then got diagnosed (with cancer) but the excitement Stewart is getting from this is brilliant.”

Mullins’ wife Jackie was also on hand to witness her son’s greatest day in the saddle first hand.

She said: “I’m so proud. I can’t put it into words. It’s when we are home and look at it again that I’ll really appreciate it.

“We watched it in JP’s box and we were all roaring for slightly different things, but I was watching Patrick of course and then also the possibility of the one-two-three, which I could see might be on once they got over the last, although we all know what the National is like and anything can happen.”

Patrick Mullins has always appreciated the history of the great game, so to be able to read his name on the long roll of honour meant the world to him.

“That’s so cool. This is the race. I remember reading books about it when I was six or seven and obviously Lottery, The Lamb, Abd-El-Kader as the first double winner of the race and then Reynoldstown, Golden Miller, Red Rum and Crisp and so on. That’s proper history,” he said.

“A few of my cousins (Emmet and David Mullins) have got their name on it as well, so to be able to put my name on it is special.

“We got too good a start and we were too handy. He was jumping brilliant, but I was taking him back everywhere.

“At the Canal Turn second time, I was wondering if I’d dropped back too far, but then once I’ve asked him to make up ground he got there easily and I was going to get there too soon.

“I’d that in mind when we got to the last, so I was bopping around until we got to the elbow and then I said to myself ‘I’m going to go, I’m going to enjoy this’.”