{"id":201938,"date":"2025-10-15T14:08:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T14:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/201938\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T14:08:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T14:08:12","slug":"italian-job-was-just-what-mullins-needed-at-end-of-hectic-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/201938\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian job was just what Mullins needed at end of hectic campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Closutton handler has achieved just about everything the National Hunt game has to offer over the course of his illustrious career, but even he was reduced to tears after his record-breaking amateur rider son Patrick passed the post in front in the world\u2019s most famous steeplechase in April.<\/p>\n

With a second successive British trainers\u2019 championship to fight for during the remaining weeks of the season there was little time for Mullins to enjoy his third National success, but he did belatedly take two weeks out in southern Italy to gather his thoughts.<\/p>\n

\"PatrickPatrick Mullins with his mother Jackie Mullins, and father and winning trainer Willie Mullins after winning the Randox Grand National with Nick Rockett (David Davies for The Jockey Club)<\/p>\n

Six months on at an Aintree press morning at his yard on Wednesday, Mullins said: \u201cI was fairly drained by the last day of the season! At that particular time of the year we were trying to organise Sandown runners and other runners in England. We had entries everywhere and people were coming at me with different ideas \u2013 we ended up going to Plumpton with Absurde.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen on top of that for me was buying horses for this year and next year. That was all going along, which other people wouldn\u2019t see, and my head was sort of fried between the racing and trying to keep an eye on the horses that were coming up for sale.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we finally got all the horses out to grass for the summer, my head was fried by that stage and I didn\u2019t want to see a horse for a couple of weeks! I went off and laid out in the sun.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all pinching ourselves. We were two years down the road and we\u2019d won two British championships, two Grand Nationals and whatever we did in Cheltenham and everything else. We find it extraordinary to see what has just happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WillieWillie Mullins with the British trainers\u2019 championship trophy (David Davies for The Jockey Club)<\/p>\n

On potentially becoming the first trainer since Vincent O\u2019Brien 50 years ago to win three Grand Nationals in a row, Mullins added: \u201cThat would be huge. I\u2019ll just be trying to prepare them to get there and after that you need all that luck.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a bit of planning, trying to identify the horses at this time of year that might progress enough to get there, plus trying to keep the two that have already won it right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking back on the race, Mullins further reflected on what he described as the \u201cbiggest thrill\u201d he has ever had in racing: \u201cI was just looking at Patrick the whole way from the Canal Turn. I said \u2018this could happen\u2019 and I was thinking my mother is not here to see it and my father is not here to see it, all the people that you want to be there.<\/p>\n

\"RandoxNick Rockett ridden by jockey Patrick Mullins win the Randox Grand National Handicap Chase on day three of the Randox Grand National Festival at Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool. Picture date: Saturday April 5, 2025.\"NickNick Rockett and Patrick Mullins passing the famous Aintree winning post (David Davies for The Jockey Club)<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked at our other four or five horses in the race and then went back to Patrick and he was still cantering, but you never think it\u2019s going to happen because so many things happen in the National. A few years earlier Patrick was cantering on Burrows Saint and he got to the second-last and he didn\u2019t stay \u2013 the horse just emptied out underneath him and I was waiting for something like that to happen or a horse to fall in front of him or for him to make a mistake.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was so taken in with the whole thing, I\u2019d say it was sinking in as it was happening actually and it is probably the biggest thrill I ever got in racing. I had my first winner in Cheltenham, first Champion Hurdle, first Gold Cup and first Grand National and all those things, but this one probably superseded the whole lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

As if training a Grand National winner ridden by your son was not enough, Mullins also saddled five of the first seven home, with the previous year\u2019s National hero I Am Maximus filling the runner-up spot and Grangeclare West a close-up third and all three look set to return to Aintree next spring.<\/p>\n

\"WillieWillie Mullins with JP McManus and jockey Paul Townend after I Am Maximus won the National in 2024 (Mike Egerton\/PA)<\/p>\n

Mullins has previously raised the possibility of Nick Rockett being targeted at the Cheltenham Gold Cup, but said: \u201cThe more I think about it the more I think it\u2019s probably a good idea to head back to Aintree with a horse that really showed he handled the track and he\u2019s going to have not much more weight I imagine.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis owner Stewart Andrew has been discussing Gold Cup entries with me, so that\u2019s in his head, but when I look at the Gold Cup horses that are around he might have as good a chance in the Grand National.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year he went to Leopardstown at Christmas, the Thyestes, the Bobbyjo and Aintree. I\u2019ll be trying to get a run into him before Christmas this season and we\u2019ll follow a similar route I think.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d imagine I Am Maximus will go back to the National as well. I know JP (McManus) is very fond of the National, he loves to have horses for it and he has a couple of Gold Cup horses already.\u201d<\/p>\n

In theory Mullins could train Nick Rockett for both major prizes, of course, but he feels a Grand National contender needs a special kind of preparation.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWith a Gold Cup horse you can run in the top races and win good prize-money, like Galopin Des Champs, but Grand National horses are different as you more or less have to mind them for the whole season and then you could fall at the last or even the first.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do need that quality and it\u2019s nice to have a horse on the way up. I\u2019m hoping Spanish Harlem might be a horse in that bracket this season. He just seems to have come right for me \u2013 he\u2019s been here two years and it\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve been happy with him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Closutton handler has achieved just about everything the National Hunt game has to offer over the course…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201939,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-201938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}