THE Queen.

That title belonged to only one woman in Irish racing – Maureen Mullins, matriarch of a racing dynasty. Maureen died on Ash Wednesday, February 14th, aged 94. She was born Maureen Doran, a daughter of a ‘strong farmer’ from Kilcruit, just across the River Barrow from the Mullins’ ancestral home and farm, Doninga.

Indeed, Paddy and Maureen, friendly with Paddy’s sister Evelyn, were already ‘doing a line’ when Paddy both trained and rode Flash Parade II to become his first training success – albeit officially trained by his father William Mullins – in the 1953 T. Levins-Moore Memorial Plate at the annual Fairyhouse Easter meeting.

That warranted dinner in The Bailey, a foremost Dublin restaurant. Paddy and Flash Parade II followed up in the La Touche Memorial Chase at Punchestown, Paddy’s first official training success.

In November 1954 Paddy and Maureen were married in St Mary’s Church, Haddington Road, Dublin, Maureen having spent the previous three years working as a secretary in Dublin. Paddy’s brother, Luke, was best man, his ushers were Tom Doran and second cousin Luke McGonagle. Bridesmaids were Maureen’s sisters Peggy, Betty and Eileen. Paddy was 35 at the time and Maureen more than 10 years his junior. Their honeymoon was spent in Paris.

By convention Paddy had now to seek his living away from Doninga, inherited by his eldest brother, Jim. Two other siblings, Bill (Liam to his family) and Luke joined the Irish Army. Horses were the only livelihood Paddy ever contemplated. The newly-weds set up house in a former steward’s house on the Doninga estate, which was to become their permanent home. They struggled, but the breakthrough came in 1959 – nine winners, almost double the total from the previous five years.

Family

Meanwhile the family began to multiply. Sandra, the eldest, was born in October 1955, William in September 1956, George in October 1959, Tony in January 1962 and Tom in May 1964. William, Paddy’s father, died in 1963, preceded in 1954 by Paddy’s mother, a cancer victim.

The closure of the nearby Kirwan stable in 1960 saw better animals come Paddy’s way, outstanding among these was the diminutive mare Height O’Fashion. Not only did she win a dozen for Paddy, but her trip to Newcastle and the feed that kept her alive during the return delays were to prove revolutionary. They led Paddy to join forces with nearby Liam Connolly of Red Mills to produce a compound feed specifically for performance horses.

Consecutive Irish Grand National triumphs with Vulpine in 1967 and Herring Gull in 1968, consolidated by a further brace with Dim Wit in 1972 and Luska in 1980 confirmed Paddy Mullins’ position in the forefront of his profession.

As a prelude to his Fairyhouse success, Norah Wilson’s Herring Gull had opened Paddy’s Cheltenham Festival account. Herring Gull went on to become Paddy’s first French winner at Auteuil, in the Prix des Drags, ridden by Stan Mellor.

Educated in Mount St Joseph’s, Roscrea, Willie Mullins had begun to cut his teeth in point-to-points when his father hit the big time in flat circles with Hurry Harriet, shock winner of the 1973 Champion Stakes at Newmarket from Allez France, led in, in owner Malcolm Thorpe’s absence, by Sandra Mullins, a graduate of the Sacred Heart Convent, Roscrea.

Contrary to their father’s well-meant advice, all four sons began to make their living from racing. Moreover, all five children married into horses. Sandra became the first to wed when Peter McCarthy became her husband in 1978.

The following year three of her brothers, Willie, Tony and George rode winners. Not to be outdone, Sandra opened her winning account on I’m Ready at Tralee in September 1980.

Emotions

In 1982 Paddy Mullins was seen to experience very uncharacteristic emotions when he saddled Hazy Dawn to win at the Cheltenham Festival, ridden by his son Willie. Later that year Maureen completed a full deck for the Mullins family when riding Razzo Forte to a pillar-to-post success in the annual flat race for trainers’ wives and daughters at Gowran Park, promptly announcing her retirement to preserve her one hundred per cent record.

Ample compensation awaited Maureen as an owner, notably with Grabel, winner of America’s most valuable jumps race, the Duelling Grounds International Hurdle in 1990, ridden by her son, Tony.

Maureen, happily preoccupied in her often demanding role as a leading trainer’s wife, responsible for riding shotgun on owners at the races, found herself in the centre of a family crisis. It concerned the best jumping mare Paddy would ever train. Her name was Dawn Run and she belonged to a particularly opinionated former amateur rider, Charmaine Hill.

Tony Mullins had been the mare’s regular partner. Mrs Hill demanded a change. It fell to Maureen to break the awful news to her son. It is history now that Dawn Run went on to become the only animal ever to win both the Champion Hurdle and the Cheltenham Gold Cup, ridden by Jonjo O’Neill, Paddy’s chosen substitute.

In between, injury to Jonjo saw Tony reunited with this amazing mare for six wins in succession, only to be deposed again prior to the mare’s historic Gold Cup.

‘Paddy Mullins – The master of Doninga’ by Peter O’Neill and Seán Boyne, was published in 1995. This excerpt from the ‘Epilogue’ seems appropriate. ‘Now that her family is reared, Maureen is heavily involved in the administrative side of the running of the stable, and she still rides out every day. Maureen is very much an extrovert, and is very good at dealing with the stable’s clientele. Maureen and Paddy have always been devoted to their family and now dote on their grandchildren’.

Paddy died in March 2010, aged 90, after a lifetime as a trainer, the stable taken over by his youngest son, Tom. Maureen’s ongoing contribution to racing, through the exploits of her children and grandchildren, led to her being presented in December 2016 with the Contribution to the Industry Award at Leopardstown. Presenting her award Brian Kavanagh, CEO of Horse Racing Ireland described Maureen as “the first lady of Irish racing.”

Maureen’s role was further emphasised in the Cashel Palace Hotel in November 2022 when she received an award from the Irish Racehorse Owners’ Association, presented by John O’Connor, Ballylinch Stud. Tony Mullins described his mother as “The real backbone of the whole Mullins story.” By then her son Willie, grandsons Emmet and David had seen their names inscribed on the Grand National roll of honour.

Always a well-dressed, elegant presence on the racecourse and partial to a bet with Tote Investors, Maureen was called upon to cut the ribbon on the new weighroom at Gowran Park at the recent Thyestes meeting.

It has been to her children’s and grandchildren’s credit that Maureen should have remained so happily in the public eye during those intervening, long and sometimes lonesome years. Here’s to a magnificent matriarch!