Patrick Mullins deploys ‘very, very clever’ tactic to ride 14-1 winner
The Grand National winning amateur and son of Willie Mullins used parts of the adjacent artificial track to avoid running on the heaviest parts of the turf course
Patrick Mullins delivered a demonstration of what has made him jump racing’s outstanding amateur jump jockey on Monday. The 36-year-old son of Willie Mullins who rode Nick Rockett to victory in the Grand National last April can usually be find riding the majority of his Dad’s many winners in National Hunt Flat Races., otherwise known as bumpers
On Monday at Limerick he had a rare outside ride in the concluding bumper race, partnering the Paul Hennessy-trained Of Land And Sea, who went off a 14-1 chance. Early in the race he took the five-year-old to the front and then carefully executed an ingenious plan.
During two laps of the track, Mullins steered Of Land And See off the turf course, where the ground was heavy, and onto the artificial course which runs alongside down the backside, then back on the grass to ensure he passed through the wings of the removed hurdles.
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By the finish of the race Of Land And Sea and Mullins were able to secure a nine length victory. Mullins’ manoeuvres were dissected by former Grand National-winning former jockey Daryl Jacob in the RacingTV studio.
“All he is doing, he’s going out onto the all-weather, he’s coming back in between the wings of the last hurdle as you can see there, he’s just gone back out again,” Jacob explained.
“There is absolutely no reason in the rule book to say that he can’t do it. The amount of energy that horse has saved by going up on the all-weather track.
“It’s good ground up there. They’re all galloping on heavy ground and that is why he is a master and the artist of riding in bumpers, because there you go, no stone is unturned. Every day he goes out there, he runs the track and he’s where he’s meant to go and where he can go.”
Studio present Anthony Dunkley said: “He did this on both circuits. On that second time you can suddenly see the riders behind rowing away. He’s caught them a little bit unawares and he’s saved some ground on his horse.”
Jacob added: “It’s a bit like me and you. If we were running the cross country course and I was running on the road and you were running in the muck in the woods, I think by the end of it I might have a little bit more energy than you.
“It was very, very clever. It’s all about knowing the courses and riding the course accordingly. He’s an artist. He does it day in, day out and we people see him going wide in Bumpers for Willie Mullins he knows exactly every blade of grass that he wants to cover.”
