Trainer Profile

County Of Origin: Kilkenny

Date of birth: January 28, 1919

Died: October 28, 2010 (Age 91)

First Winner: Flash Parade (Paddy Mullins) La touche Memorial Perpetual Challenge Cup, Punchestown, April 29, 1953

Final winner: Asian Maze (Paul Carberry) Punchestown, December 31, 2004

Significant horses (selected): Dawn Run, Hurry Harriet, Vintage Tipple, Grabel, Height O' Fashion, Herring Gull, Counsel Cottage, Hazy Dawn, Macks Friendly, Vulpine, Dim Wit, Luska, The Gooser, Boro Quarter, Nearly A Moose, Negrada, Prince Tammy, Pearlstone, Camden Buzz, Redundant Pal, Scally Owen, Bob What, Tender Cove, Asian Maze. 

Did you know:

Paddy Mullins was one of the all-time legends of the Irish racing game. He will always be remembered as the man who trained the great Dawn Run, the only horse in history to win the Cheltenham Champion Hurdle and Cheltenham Gold Cup. In total this wonderful mare won 20 races in her career and by winning the French, Irish and English Champion Hurdle in 1984, she was the only animal to do so.

However, he is also remembered as a being one of Ireland’s most successful trainers and his career spanned 52 years until his retirement in 2005. Apart from Dawn Run’s success in the Champion Hurdle and the 1986 Gold Cup, he saddled four other winners at the Cheltenham Festival which included Herring Gull, Counsel Cottage, Hazy Dawn and Macks Friendly.

He also won the Irish Grand National on four occasions (Vulpine 1967, Herring Gull 1968, Dim Wit 1972 and Luska 1981) while he proved successful in the Galway Plate on three times (The Gooser 1992, Boro Quarter 1986 and Nearly A Moose 2003) while the Galway Hurdle was annexed four times (Negrada 1976, Prince Tammy 1978, Pearlstone 1980 and Camden Buzz 1993).

One of his greatest servants was the remarkable mare, Grabel, a winner of 25 races in her career with her most notable victory being the Duelling Grounds Hurdle in Kentucky in 1990 while Minorettes Girl was another notable mare with eight victories to her name.

One of Paddy’s greatest achievements was winning the 1973 English Champion Stakes at Newmarket with Hurry Harriet who caused a real shock when defeating the brilliant French filly Allez France. Of that win, Mullins said, "It was the highlight of my career, as she beat the best filly in Europe, Allez France." He had to wait until 2003 before training his first Classic winner on the flat which came courtesy of Vintage Tipple under Frankie Dettori in the Irish Oaks at the Curragh.

Paddy passed away at the age of 91 in 2010 but his legacy will never be forgotten. Indeed, the Mullins family name is never far from the racing headlines to this day.  

On February 14, 2024, Paddy's wife Maureen died at the age of 94. Ever present on the country's racecourses for most of her life, she was a noted racehorse owner and breeder. She rode a winner at Gowran Park in 1982 and was a long-serving director of the racecourse.