Training legend Mullins dies, aged 91

RACING:PADDY MULLINS, the man who trained the legendary Dawn Run and who was the patriarch of an Irish racing dynasty, died yesterday morning. He was 91.

Tributes poured in for the Kilkenny trainer whose 52-year career ended in 2005 having become one of the most celebrated in modern Irish racing.

The modest, quietly spoken farmer’s son from Goresbridge graduated from comparative anonymity as an amateur jockey in the 1940s to create one the most successful dual-purpose yards in Ireland.

Crowned champion jumps trainer on 10 occasions, Mullins was also a formidable force with flat horses and in 2003 saddled a Classic winner when the Frankie Dettori-ridden Vintage Tipple recorded a hugely popular success in the Irish Oaks at the Curragh.

Mullins always maintained his finest moment came in 1973 when the 33 to 1 outsider Hurry Harriet upset some of the best horses in Europe by landing the Champion Stakes at Newmarket. “That was the highlight of my career, as she beat the best filly in Europe, Allez France,” he said.

However, Mullins will always hold a singular place in racing history as the man who trained Dawn Run, the only horse to win the Champion Hurdle and the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

That Gold Cup success in 1986 was the culmination of a tumultuous period in which the trainer clashed with Dawn Run’s owner, Charmain Hill, over which jockey should be riding the great mare.

Jonjo O’Neill had replaced Mullins’s son, Tony, before the 1984 Champion Hurdle victory, but afterwards Tony Mullins rode Dawn Run to win the French Champion Hurdle and then in her first races over fences.

Despite a widely held belief that Dawn Run raced more kindly for Mullins than O’Neill, a pre-festival tip-up at Cheltenham in early 1986 resulted in Hill insisting on O’Neill being put back on board for the Gold Cup.

The result was an epic victory where the Irish star rallied when looking beaten to overhaul Wayward Lad in the dying strides. It provoked riotous scenes, but the winning trainer later admitted he couldn’t enjoy the event after the way he felt his son had been treated.

Just three months later the story ended in tragedy when Dawn Run was killed in a fall at the Auteuil track in Paris.

There were happier Cheltenham moments for Mullins when his eldest son, Willie, rode Hazy Dawn and Mack’s Friendly to win big amateur events, while Herring Gull (1968 RSA Chase) and Counsel Cottage (1977 SunAlliance Hurdle) also scored at the festival.

At home, he won almost every major jumping prize, including the Irish Grand National on four occasions with Vulpine (1967), Herring Gull (1968), Dim Wit (1972) and Luska (1981).

Mullins married Maureen in 1954 and they had five children who have continued the family tradition in racing.

Willie Mullins is the current Irish champion trainer and won the Aintree Grand National in 2005 with Hedgehunter. Tom, Tony and Sandra also train, while George runs a horse transport business.

Tony Mullins said yesterday: “Everyone knows he was a great trainer, but he was an even greater family man. He was certainly the greatest family man I ever knew and we all stayed around him and trained within five miles of home.

“The family has always been very unified and he kept it that way all his life. He taught us all we know – whatever we know.

“It was a little tough the last couple of days, but up until then he had a very good and healthy life.”

Another former champion trainer, Noel Meade, described Mullins as a “genius” and pointed to “the incredible dynasty he left behind him”.

“He was a genius of a horseman and he probably changed the system of training in Ireland with the interval training he pioneered,” Meade said. “He was always able to give a bit of advice and he amazed everybody with what he could achieve with his horses.”

Horse Racing Ireland chief executive Brian Kavanagh said: “From his first winner in 1953 (Flash Parade at Punchestown) until he retired in 2005, the performances of his horses on the track spoke loudly of the talents of the quiet man of Irish racing over a span of more than 50 years.”

Jonjo O’Neill described Mullins as “a very nice man, but a very quiet man. He didn’t say a lot, but when he spoke you listened and took notice. He was a unique man and he loved horses and he knew everything about the game inside out.”

Frankie Dettori fondly remembered Vintage Tipple’s victory in the Irish Oaks and said: “Obviously I had heard of Paddy but I had never met him until the day. He had a great aura about him and he didn’t give me any instructions. He said I had been riding horses all my life and left it to me.

“He got an amazing reception after the race as he was a legend and was loved by the Irish racing public.”