Willie Mullins dominant Grand National outing was anything but boring as emotion pours out

Whisper it quietly but there are some in National Hunt racing who wonder whether the domination of trainer Willie Mullins is good for the sport. He is universally popular, for sure, a thoroughly decent guy and truly remarkable at what he does, probably on his way to being acknowledged as the best ever.

To saddle the first three in a Grand National - and have five of his six runners finish in the top seven - is a truly stunning achievement. History-making stuff. In any sport, though, there comes a time when the domination of one person can become uninspiring.

But this was NOT that time. Sure, this Grand National was about another Mullins milestone but, triumphantly, it was about human spirit, about family, about pure emotion.

For Mullins, as they once liked to say at a football club near here, this meant more. In the shape of the eight-year-old Nick Rockett, he had provided his son Patrick with the winner of, arguably, the most famous horse race of all.

That is why Willie, normally the calmest man in the winners enclosure, was temporarily unable to speak, awash with emotion, weeping uncontrollably. Before giving in to the tears, Mullins said: “It is lovely to be able to give your son a ride in the National but to be able to win is just unbelievable.”

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And amidst the tearful scenes stood Stewart Andrew, the owner of Nick Rockett. Sorry, the co-owner - because the horse also runs in the name of Stewart’s wife, Sadie, who passed away from cancer just over two years ago, five days after she watched Nick Rockett win on its racecourse debut in Ireland.

And through his own tears, Bradford-born Andrew said: “Sadie would have loved today - she was up there, she’ll have had a tenner each way, I guarantee you! “From a personal point of view, I can’t tell you what this means. Sometimes, life takes us down roads that none of us want to go down and we’re there, we can end up in not the best places.

“Nick was Sadie’s horse. She had asked Willie to find her a horse, which she did. We found out she had terminal cancer on November 17 (2002) and she died on December 8. Willie ran him just to let Sadie see him. He finished fourth and Sadie said that he was fit, he would win. She would have loved this. Again, Nick Rockett was not my horse, he was my wife’s horse.”

Sadie was from Goresbridge, not far away from Mullins’ training base in Closutton, County Carlow, a place Andrew visited when he was struggling to cope with his wife’s death.

“After Sadie died, I went over to Willie’s to watch Nick Rockett work. I was in a tough place, missing Sadie and Willie said he had two horses running in the Melbourne Cup and asked if I wanted to come out. I went out and had the time of my life with the guys. It took me out of a cycle of not socialising as I had gone into a bit of a shell.”

And that bond between Mullins and Andrew, trainer and owner, was just another of the uplifting narratives that accompanied a truly stunning sporting feat. Don’t let anyone tell you that the supremacy of Willie Mullins is anything other than good for the sport of National Hunt racing.