As Patrick Mullins became the first jockey to finish past the post at the 2025 Grand National, he went down in history on board Nick Rockett. However, the immediate days after Aintree have been fairly mixed.
Mullins, son of legendary trainer Willie, has not been able to claim any of the £500,000 prize money for taking first place. He has also subsequently been banned from racing for eight days for using the whip too much while riding the 33/1 winner. The Whip Review Committee pulled up Mullins’ ride and handed him the suspension after being found to have used his whip eight times from the final fence, exceeding the allowed limit of seven.
But the gloss won’t be taken off Mullins’ win, the last thing on his mind after glory was a possible short ban or the prize money. He said: “I had too good a start and was having to take him back all the way. I was wondering at the Canal Turn ‘Had I lost too much ground’. But he just jumped fantastic. Then I was there too soon and it is a long way from the back of the last with Paul on my outside.
“It’s everything I’ve dreamed of since I was a kid. I know it’s a cliche but when I was five or six years old, I was reading books about the National and watching black and white videos of Red Rum. To put my name there is very special.”
And Mullins has a successful career away from jockeying, resulting in him being an amateur rider and ineligible to claim any prize money.
He is a journalist for the Racing Post and was crowned racing writer of the year in 2024, scooping the award for the first time in his career.
Mullins said at the time: “This is incredible, I really didn’t expect this. This is a huge honour, it’s right up there with any Grade 1 or Cheltenham winners, maybe even more so because Willie doesn’t train the newspaper.”
He additionally plays a key role in his father’s training operation and has been the leading amateur rider in Ireland on numerous occasions. He is an amateur by name only, winning at Cheltenham Festival no less then nine times.
And his father was over the moon to see Patrick cross the line at Aintree, saying: “I actually wasn’t thinking about the 1-2-3 – I was single-mindedly thinking about Patrick riding the winner and about Stewart and Sadie.
“I didn’t realise that we’d finished third or fifth – I didn’t look any further. Once we passed the winning post in front the rest didn’t matter.”
