Patrick Mullins (OC’08)
Patrick (Paddy) Mullins has had huge success as an amateur jockey and hit the racing headlines once again on 29th December 2012, when he broke the 97-year-old record of 72 winners in a calendar year in Ireland for an amateur jockey with his 73rd victory of 2012. Standing at 6’2” it is unlikely that he will turn professional, but following a degree in Equine Business at N.U.I. Maynooth, Paddy hopes to put his astute tactical riding brain to good effect and embark on a career in training in the longer term.
What is less well known however is that Paddy, who obtained an A1 in his English in his Leaving Certificate, is also a dab hand on the printed page. Last year, at 22 years of age, Paddy was the joint winner in the annual Wills Writing Awards, for creative writing around a horseracing theme. Paddy received £1,000 in prize money for his article Living the Dream? About his first Grand National Ride in 2011, which ended at the infamous Becher’s Brook. The article was subsequently published in the Racing Post, The Daily Telegraph and in The Irish Field.
