Patrick Mullins

This year’s Grand National-winning jockey talks us through the race, explains why he'll always be an amateur - and shares a few secrets about his legendary father with Kate Johnson

- Kate Johnson

WHILE Patrick Mullins certainly wasn’t the first amateur jockey to win the Grand National - partnering the 33/1 shot Nick Rockett - he might well be the only one to arrive via piggyback into the parade ring.

He explains with a laugh when we catch up: “Nick Rockett was pretty tired; it was a warm day and he went to cool off. Stewart Andrew, his owner, offered me a lift in!”

Patrick thought beforehand that he had “a great chance, without a winning chance”, elaborating:

“I thought he'd get me to the last fence and the weight [11st 8lb] would probably tell, but I thought he had a great chance of being in the first four, which is like a winner anywhere else.”

Retired jockey Davy Russell, who won back-to-back Nationals with Tiger Roll, writes in his autobiography that to be in with a chance in this race, “you don’t actually need to be lucky, you just need not to be unlucky”. Patrick agrees, saying of this, his sixth attempt: “Everything went right, no one came across us or fell in front of us; we just had a bubble of space around us at all stages.”

His recollection of the race is so exciting, it’s the next best thing to actually having a ride.

“Standing start, the tapes went up and Nick Rockett was off like a Flat horse,” he recalls. “Straight away, everyone on the inside seemed to get caught up on each other. The outside horses were slightly ahead; there was clear air in front of me. He winged the first.

“I wanted a little bit of cover and Sam Twiston-Davies ended up in front of me on Beauport. Perfect! He has plenty of jumping experience. When we crossed the Melling Road the first time, in sixth or seventh, I thought, ‘We have a chance, the race has calmed down, we're in the position where winners often come from.’