A PLAN DEVISED OVER $10 BOTTLES OF WINE IN MELBOURNE LEADS TO GRAND NATIONAL GLORY

By Graham Potter | Saturday, April 5, 2025

It was a Grand National for the ages … a Willie Mullins Grand National to be more precise with the champion trainer saddling the first three runners past the post, led by Nick Rockett, and five of the first seven runners to complete the thirty-jump course.

Apart from Mullins dominance on the training front, there were also sub-plots and emotions aplenty and a back-story of a plan hatched in far-off Australia that set out the stepping stones to Grand National glory.

It was a back-story related with some amusement by Nick Rockett’s owner Stewart Andrew, talking to ITV.

“We had a session in Melbourne,” explained Andrew. “We’d gone down to see Absurde and Vauban. We were late for a restaurant, so we ending up at something like two-o-clock in the morning in a classic joint.

“I’ll tell you how classic it was. The wine list was red or white … that was it!

“We ended up there and Willie said, this is the plan. We are going to win the Thyestes (at Gowran). We are going to win the BobbyJo (at Fairyhouse) and then we’ll give it a crack at Aintree.

“What can I say!”

Nick Rockett won all three of those races targeted on that late night session in Melbourne. The Thyestes and the Bobbyjo were both Grade 3 events and, as planned, they served to set up a magnificent Grand Finale for Nick Rockett with a Grand National win which opened the floodgates of emotion for the connections of the Grand National winner.

Nick Rockett was ridden by Willie Mullins’ son, Patrick which left the trainer literally unable to put his emotion into words when approached immediately after the race for comment by ITV.

Shortly afterwards, when he had composed himself, Mullins said, "It was some result. It is lovely to be able to give your son a ride in the National, but to be able to win it is just unbelievable.

"I don’t think anything can be better than this. It's huge. To win it as a trainer is wonderful but what a special day for Patrick. I just can't comprehend it or take it in.

"To sire the winning rider, to train the winner and to have my wife Jackie here. We planned this with Stewart Andrew over $10 bottles of wine in Australia. All great plans come together.”

This was a subplot twenty-five years before into fruition again with the last father son combination to train and ride a Grand National winner together being Ted and Ruby Walsh who won with Papillon in 2000.

Interestingly enough, when Walsh rode his second National winner, Hedgehunter, it was for the self-same Willie Mullins when Mullins landed his first win in the race in 2005.

Nick Rockett gave Mullins back-to-back wins in the Grand National, having taken out the 2024 edition of the event with I Am Maximus, who finished a gallant second behind Nick Rockett this time around.

And the emotion didn’t stop there.

You had to marvel at how composed owner Stewart Andrew was in paying tribute to the memory and ‘presence’ of his late wife Sadie who passed away less than a week after Nick Rockett made his debut back in 2022.

“Nick Rockett wasn’t my horse. It was my wife’s horse,” said Andrew.

“She wanted a horse in training with Willie. Sadie wanted him to run at Fairyhouse for my sixtieth birthday. Willie really didn’t want to because the horse wasn’t ready, but then we found out that she had terminal cancer so Willie ran him just to let Sadie see him run. The horse finished fourth.

"Willie is just unbelievable.”

But there was also room for some exuberance too, with Andrew displaying that by piggybacking Partrick Mullins into the winners’ enclosure to the delight of all who witnessed the Mullins team joyous moment.

In essence, this was Grand National result which claimed instant historic status.

‘The People’s Race’ is alive and well.

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