PADDY MULLINS:THOSE CLOSEST to former champion trainer Paddy Mullins, who has died aged 91, always insisted he was a much more voluble character than might have been guessed by looking at the shy figure who often gazed at microphones as if they were booby-traps.
On the familiar ground of his stables near Goresbridge in Co Kilkenny, Mullins could be relaxed and enthusiastic company. He enjoyed nothing better than being with his family, and recounting tales of his best horses. They included a classic winner in Vintage Tipple, who won the 2003 Irish Oaks when her trainer was 84 years old, and a 1973 Champion Stakes success for the horse he always maintained was his greatest success - the 33/1 outsider Hurry Harriet.
Mullins's place in racing history is assured not just by achievement on the flat, but by the legendary mare Dawn Run, still the only horse ever to win both the Champion Hurdle (1984) and the Cheltenham Gold Cup (1986.)
Her remarkable Gold Cup triumph, fighting back to win after looking beaten at the final fence, remains one of the most iconic images in racing. However, the man who orchestrated her career couldn't enjoy the moment. In the midst of the mayhem that famous day, all Paddy Mullins wanted was to go somewhere quiet.
That had much to do with his bitter disappointment at having his son, Tony, replaced in the saddle by Jonjo O'Neill at the insistence of Dawn Run's owner, Charmain Hill. "That woman," was how he referred to her afterwards. Later, instead of jubilation, he described feeling "absolute numbness" after winning the Gold Cup.
A devoted father to his four sons and one daughter, such a blow ran deep. But a desire to avoid the full glare of publicity was instinctive in Paddy Mullins. He disliked the media, claiming reporters always spoke through their pockets, and was always guarded in his public utterances.
Born in Graiguenamanagh in 1919, his father was a farmer and small-time trainer, a pattern Paddy looked like repeating after a low-profile career as an amateur jockey. Mullins's first winner as a trainer was Flash Parade at Punchestown in April 1953. The following year he married Maureen Doran, and her more extrovert nature perfectly complemented that of her husband when it came to running a training establishment. However, it was not until 1962, and Height O'Fashion's Irish Cesarewitch success, before Mullins started to make a real impact.
Five years later he won the first of four Irish Grand Nationals with Vulpine, and Herring Gull won the same race in 1968 after providing his trainer with a first Cheltenham festival success in the Totalisator Champion Chase. Dim Wit (1972) and Luska Lad (1981) were his other Irish National winners.
There was hardly a major National Hunt prize in Ireland that Mullins didn't win, including three victories in the Galway Plate and four in the Galway Hurdle. Redundant Pal won back-to back Ladbroke Hurdles in 1989 and 1990. His most prolific season was 1984, when he became only the third Irish trainer to saddle 100 winners in a year. Mullins also took Grabel to the USA in 1990 for his richest ever win in the Dueling Grounds International Hurdle.
A willingness to travel was also behind Hurry Harriet's Champion Stakes success. After placed efforts in the Irish Oaks and the Prix Vermeille, the Irish outsider got the better of Europe's best filly, Allez France. That success reflected the trainer's ability of being able to turn cheaply bought horses into high-class runners.
"He trained by instinct. He just had a feel for horses. He was miles cleverer than anyone else, just a genius," said his former stable jockey and head lad, Ferdy Murphy. "There was nothing conventional about his methods, but he would see things nobody else would see."
What even Paddy Mullins couldn't have foreseen, however, was the continuing impact of his family on the racing industry.
His eldest son, Willie, is currently Ireland's champion National Hunt trainer, and has saddled numerous top-class winners including Grand National winner Hedgehunter. Two other sons, Tony and Tom, have also enjoyed top-flight success as trainers.
Their father finally retired in 2005 and, determined as ever to avoid any fuss, he simply said of his long career: "I never saw a reason to give up."
In his last years, Mullins enjoyed watching three of his grandchildren, Patrick, Emmet and Danny, all of whom have become successful jockeys. Still known as "the Boss" to the end of his days, all three received the benefit of a lifetime's experience from a genuine racing legend. Typically, though, any advice was given quietly and discreetly.
Paddy Mullins: born January 19th, 1919; died October 28th, 2010