EVEN in his eighties, Willie Robinson is as great a character as one could ever meet; he has an extremely dry sense of humour and a twinkle in his eye. His name will forever be linked to the great steeplechaser Mill House, whom he rode so stylishly and quietly in the 1960s for those epic duels with the mighty Arkle.
Willie Robinson was born in 1934, and his father trained a small string of racehorses at Phoepotstown, near Kilcock in Co Meath. “There was a lovely grass field and an uphill gallop. No all-weather surfaces in those days.” The family always farmed, and Willie was brought up in the countryside surrounded by animals. His sister, Mary Rose, was also an accomplished rider and later married the fine horseman Seamus Hayes.
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