LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — It was a great day for the Mullins family in the Grand National.
Ridden by amateur jockey Patrick Mullins and trained by father Willie Mullins, Nick Rockett — a 33-1 shot— won the world-famous horse race in front of about 70,000 racegoers at Aintree Racecourse on Saturday.
For Willie Mullins, it was a 1-2-3 in the grueling steeplechase. I Am Maximus (7-1), which was bidding to win for back-to-back years, finished in second place and Grangeclare West (33-1) was third, with both horses also trained by Mullins.
“It is lovely to be able to give your son a ride in the National,” Willie Mullins said, “but to be able to win it is just unbelievable.”
Patrick Mullins said winning the storied race was “something I dreamed about since I was a kid.”
“It’s a cliche,” he said, “but when I was 5 or 6 years old, I remember reading books about the National. To put my name there is incredibly special.”
The Grand National — a race for 34 horses over 30 fences — has long been regarded as one of the most dangerous horse races in the world because of the size of the fences, though a number of new measures were introduced last year in an attempt to make it safer.
The 177th edition appeared to pass off without major incident.
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The Associated Press
