Patrick Mullins is sitting comfortably in Cunningham’s in Kildare. Pint in front of him. (MiWadi.) The venue was easily determined, the culmination of a clutch of text messages that had gone something like this.

Patrick Mullins

Rocket Man

Winning the Grand National was the dream of a lifetime for Patrick Mullins but there are many more worlds the champion amateur wants to conquer

Photos: Caroline Norris • Words: Donn McClean

Patrick Mullins is sitting comfortably. The Melling Road goes by underneath him and the first fence looms. Nick Rockett measures it up and pops. Seamless, rhythmic, relaxed.

Broadway Boy and Tom Bellamy cross in front of him, right to left, but Nick Rockett doesn’t flinch. Clear sight of the second. Up, pop, land. Smooth.

The third is the big ditch. They talk about the big ditch, one of the most difficult fences on the course these days, they say, since they have softened The Chair and filled in Becher’s Brook. Nick Rockett doesn’t hear the talk though, he just sees another spruce obstacle in front of him and he measures it up. Lands running. Metronomic.

Fences four and five pass underneath him. Jump, land, jump, land, and then the hedges on your left, then Becher’s Brook. Not as fearsome as it once was, not as severe as it was in 1989, or even in 2011, but it’s still a tricky fence; there’s still a small drop and it comes at you at an angle, there’s a small dogleg turn to your left as soon as you jump it. Nick Rockett gets in a little tight to the fence, skews a little in the air, but he’s never in any danger. Thirty years ago maybe, even 15 years ago, the steepness of the drop could have taken his centre of gravity beyond his base, but this was nothing. He’s quickly back into his rhythm and onto Foinavon. Patrick Mullins is sitting comfortably in Cunningham’s in Kildare. Pint in front of him. (MiWadi.) The venue was easily determined, the culmination of a clutch of text messages that had gone something like this. Patrick: Will we aim for Bardon’s at 5pm? Donn: Yeah great. Patrick: I’m told Bardon’s is closed today, so Cunningham’s? Donn: No prob. Where’s that? Kilcullen too? Patrick: Kildare. (Duh) Okay, there was no (Duh), but the rest is accurate enough. Cunningham’s (in Kildare) has that early-winter-early-evening-pub feel to it. Half natural light, half pub light, the echoes of a smattering of people, too late for lunch, too early for dinner and definitely too early for a pint of anything other than milk or MiWadi. 

Patrick is talking about Nick Rockett. The horse, the achievement, the story, the poignancy. Nick Rockett races in the colours of Stewart and Sadie Andrew. Sadie went to school with Willie Mullins, she always said that she would have a horse with him. Sadie was battling cancer when Nick Rockett raced for the first time under rules, in a bumper at Fairyhouse in December 2022. Sadly, Sadie passed away shortly afterwards, but not before she had seen her horse make his racecourse debut.

Patrick has ridden Nick Rockett in a race just twice: the first time in that racecourse debut at Fairyhouse in December 2022, the second time on his latest run, in the Aintree Grand National in April 2025.

“I sent Willie a text... If you’re talking to him, he can be easily distracted, but if you send him a text, at least you have his attention for the time that it takes him to read the text”

“He didn’t scream Grand National,” Patrick is saying. “Like, it’s not as if he obviously had a ton up his sleeve or anything. But he won the Thyestes and he won the Bobbyjo, and they’re both good pointers to the National. Paul (Townend) rode him in both those races, but he was obviously riding I Am Maximus in the National. So I was looking at the weights. I’m limited by the weights in the horses that I can ride in the National.”

Nick Rockett was set to carry 11st8lb in the National, and that was fine. Grangeclare West was also set to carry 11st8lb, so he was an option too. After that, Meetingofthewaters had 10st7lb, so he was out. Minella Cocooner and Appreciate It both had 11st2lb, and that was doable, so they were both options too. 

“It’s not only about the weights though. Danny (Mullins) might have an association with a horse, or an owner might want a particular rider. So you just have to throw your hat in the ring. I was riding at Hexham during the lead-up to the National, and I was asked on Sky Sports Racing if I knew what I would be riding in the National, and I said maybe Nick Rockett.”

That’s the hat into the middle of the ring then. But there is also the uncertainty of all the permutations swirling around the genius mind of Willie Mullins.

“I sent Willie a text. I find that that can be best. If you’re talking to him, he can be easily distracted, but if you send him a text, at least you have his attention for the time that it takes him to read the text.”

Nick Rockett was a relative outsider, a 33/1 shot, joint-biggest of the six Willie Mullins horses in the National, but Patrick thought that he was better than that. “I thought that I had a chance of getting to the final fence with a chance, if that makes sense,” he says. “I thought he’d jump, and he was in form, which is a big thing in the National. And then, if you get to the last, anything can happen. Did I think he’d win? No, but I thought I’d get a thrill anyway. Burrows Saint got me to the second-last in 2021. Well, to the home turn anyway. He couldn’t take me any further, he finished fourth. That was my best finish in the National before this year.”

First National? Dooneys Gate, 2011. That was the first year that you could bypass the fences, the first year that that fences weren’t stretched all the way across the track from the inside rail to the outside rail. Dooneys Gate fell at Becher’s first time, ultimately fatally, sadly, and the field had to bypass the fence second time around. “That was sad,” says Patrick. “And it was the first time that they had to bypass a fence in the National. I was hoping that they would call it Mullins’ Bypass, but they didn’t.” Deadpan.

“That was disappointing.”

Aintree this year wasn’t only about the Grand National though. There was Gaelic Warrior and there was Quai De Bourbon and there was Green Splendour and there was the British trainers’ championship.

“Gaelic Warrior on the Thursday was a big surprise, because Paul was going to ride him, and then he was riding Embassy Gardens, so that was a big one for me to get.” Gaelic Warrior bounded clear under Patrick to win the Bowl, over three miles and one furlong, which opened up more options for the Maxios gelding.

“I thought that Annamix might have a right chance in the Foxhunters’, I had finished third on him the year before, but we got no joy with him. And then on Friday, Quai De Bourbon. I went down the inside on him at Cheltenham, and he unseated me at the fourth-last, so I said going out at Aintree, ‘I’m staying out.’ I thought that he was travelling beautifully down the back straight. Jordans made a mistake on my inside, so I moved in in front of him to follow Paul on Dancing City. Then he fell at the next and promptly brought me down.”

Aintree is different to Cheltenham for Team Mullins. The atmosphere is different, the set-up is different. At Cheltenham, you get up in the morning and you walk across the road to ride out. At Aintree, you have to get a taxi, 25 minutes to the track and 25 minutes back.

“This year, we had an extra dimension too, with Willie in contention for the British trainers’ championship. And it wasn’t that he had a great chance of winning it going to Aintree, it was a case that we needed everything to go right if he was going have a chance of winning it.”

Grand National day this year was a little different too. Just 34 runners in the National, not the usual 39 or 40, and you’d notice it in the weigh room. Less crowded. You still had to be there two hours before the first race, mind you, for the talk. And then, if you don’t have a ride until the Grand National, you’re hanging around. There are only so many times that you can run around the track, and you can’t be hanging around the racecourse outside the weigh room. So you relax.

“I had a nap,” says Patrick. “I just sat in the chair and fell asleep. Danny took a photo of me. I slept for about two hours I’d say.”

Patrick Mullins is sitting comfortably. Across the Anchor Bridge crossing and back onto the racecourse proper. Sixth and towards the inside, over the second-last on the first circuit, over the last, then up past the stands and over The Chair. Over the water jump and past the winning post with a circuit to run, next time it’s for real, turn left and go past the starting line. Get ready to do it all again.

Patrick Mullins has spent most of the first circuit trying to get Nick Rockett to drop back a little bit. Little things roll around your head. Like, one of their owners sent him a text in the morning.

Don’t lose your head over the first few fences.

He didn’t think anything of it at the time, but during the race, those words were on his mind. Paul Townend had told him that Nick Rockett could idle if and when he got to the front, so he was thinking, “If everything goes well and you are still there at the last, take a lead until The Elbow. Don’t hit the front before The Elbow.”

“When I met Willie in the winner’s enclosure, he was a blubbering mess. ‘Pull yourself together man!’ My mother, by contrast, was the epitome of calm”

Nick Rockett zings over the four fences that take him up to Becher’s second time. He gets in a little tight to the fifth, but he’s fine, a mere blip, and he wings Becher’s. Tenth or eleventh over Foinavon and long at the Canal Turn tells you how much energy Nick Rockett has left. Over Valentine’s and down the side of the track, over the Anchor Bridge crossing again for the final time and wheel around the home turn with two fences and one long run-in to negotiate in the 2025 Aintree Grand National. Patrick has a look to his right and he sees Paul Townend arriving there on I Am Maximus.

He gives his horse a squeeze, he doesn’t want to get caught in a pocket, and Nick Rockett picks up, retains his position and then, suddenly, he joins the front rank. He pings the second-last fence and lands in front.

“Balls,” says his rider. The season as a whole? Not great, is the self-diagnosis. Take Aintree out of it, and not great, he says. 

Of course, you are measured by the barometer that you set for yourself, but take Aintree out of it? That’s like saying, if you don’t count the All-Ireland, Kerry didn’t have a great year. 

“I had my lowest total number of winners in a season in Ireland for a long time,” he says. “I didn’t have a winner at the Dublin Racing Festival, didn’t have a winner at Cheltenham. I thought that Paul was going to be riding Jimmy Du Seuil in the Coral Cup, so I didn’t put my hand up for him. Then Paul rides Bunting and Danny wins the race on Jimmy Du Seuil.”

Ten winners for Team Mullins at the 2025 Cheltenham Festival though. More on that in a minute.

“I have been enjoying riding in Britain,” says Patrick. “I was over in Britain a lot last season, riding plenty of winners. I’d love to ride a winner at every British track. It might be difficult to get a winner at the big tracks, Kempton and Ascot and Newbury and the like, that might be tricky, because I’ll be going over essentially with homebreds. But we might give it a go.”

It’s the diversity of it all that piques his interest, the variety.

“I was over in Ffos Las last year, when we were going for the championship, and Ludlow, and Sandown: hire a car, get the map out, figure out where you’re going. Different tracks, different weigh rooms, and I thought, ‘This is cool.’ I met new people: Nicky Richards, Jack Berry, people I would have only ever read about in the paper. And the British tracks are all different. I’ve been riding around the Irish tracks all my riding career, for 19 years now, so it was nice to go and experience different tracks. It’s like reaching bonus levels in Mario Kart.” Aintree was massive. As big as you could get. An amateur rider winning the Grand National on a horse trained by his father. Willie Mullins has had many, many memorable days, there is hardly a peak in national hunt racing that he hasn’t scaled, and yet, he said that that was his best day in racing.

“Yeah, I was a bit surprised when I heard that he said that all right,” says Patrick. “I was surprised by his reaction. When I met him in the winner’s enclosure, he was a blubbering mess. ‘Pull yourself together man!’ My mother, by contrast, was the epitome of calm.”

Even when Willie Mullins sent Ethical Diamond to Del Mar in early November to win the Breeders’ Cup Turf, one of the premier races on the global flat racing calendar, recency bias at its highest and everything, microphone thrust in his direction, he still said that it was probably second to training the Grand National winner with his son riding.

“The homecoming was amazing,” says Patrick. “In Leighlinbridge. That was probably the best part of the whole thing. You know? Sunny day, we rode the horses down the street. Free ice cream. There were key rings with Nick Rockett on them. We got pictures with the local pubs, the butchers, the Bagenal. Bagpipes, big screen and everything. We stood there for about an hour as people just took photographs. You don’t get that with any other race, not the Derby, not even the Gold Cup. Everybody came out.”

And Cheltenham? Those ten winners?

“It was disappointing that Galopin (Des Champs) got beaten in the Gold Cup, and State Man falling at the last in the Champion Hurdle was obviously tough to take. But ten winners, how can you say you were disappointed? It’s all relative though. The horses we brought over. The expectations we brought over.”

And we’re back to that barometer again.

Life is good though, with Sara Rose and baby Wynter, just turned one. “I don’t think that I’d ever held a baby before, there are no other babies in our family, but she’s great. She went to Gowran the other day, exactly a year old, and she cried her head off for the whole day. But she’s brilliant. For her birthday, she got a rocking horse and a blue tractor, so she has lots of options covered.” You can tell how deeply involved he is in the training operation at Closutton too.

“I’ve been doing the board for the last five or six years. It’s like a sudoku puzzle every morning, figuring out who’s going to ride what. Then I sprained my ankle about three years ago, running, not even riding, so I spent about six weeks on the ground, not riding out every lot. I started getting the horses organised before Willie came down, and that’s been the way more or less since then. Willie will come down and change a few things sometimes, but it works well.”

“I had a nap (before the National). I just sat in the chair and fell asleep. Danny took a photo of me. I slept for about two hours I’d say”

And there’s no sign of the well-working organisation relenting any time soon. “We’re up in terms of numbers of horses,” he says. “We’re up in terms of numbers of staff. It’s extraordinary, Willie just keeps going forward. We’ve got more owners, more houses for staff. It’s very enjoyable. But you can see why Willie is as he is then. Why he doesn’t nail things down until he absolutely has to. Why he’s loose. You kind of have to be like that. But he’s as hungry as ever.” So where does that hunger lead? What’s next?

“I don’t know. Vincent (O’Brien) won the British trainers’ championship twice, Willie has now won it twice. It would be cool if he could win it three times. Vincent won the Grand National three years in a row with three different horses. It would be great to do that too.”

And riding?

“I’ve had some great tussles for the amateur championship here,” he says. “With Nina (Carberry), then with Jamie (Codd). You need something to push you on. I like to set targets for myself. Like, to ride a winner at every British track is one. And I’d love to give the British amateur championship a go. I rode 16 winners there last season, Alex Chadwick had 25, so I was a fair way off, but maybe try to do that. I don’t think that’s been done before, the Irish and the British amateur title.”

He pauses for a second, thinking about other as yet unconquered summits. “I’ve had nine winners at the Cheltenham Festival. Jamie is on ten. I’d like to get to ten. And I’d like to ride a winner against the pros over jumps at Cheltenham. And ride a winner in France. And win the Foxhunters’ at Aintree. I do realise though the position I’m in, how lucky I am.” Takes a sip of MiWadi. Patrick Mullins is sitting comfortably.