Grace, charm, style and knowledge - vibrant Maureen Mullins provided the DNA for Irish racing

Maureen Mullins, who has died at the age of 94, leaves a momentous legacy, nurtured during her long marriage to champion trainer Paddy Mullins, with whom she had a daughter and four sons and who predeceased her in 2010.

Her role as a matriarchal figure developed inexorably over time, thanks to the multiple and varied achievements of her children and grandchildren who have made the family name ubiquitous in Irish jump racing circles.

Mullins was the source of unstinting support to her husband during the ups and downs of a long and distinguished career, often presenting the public face of the stable, a role that suited her vibrant and extrovert personality, a contrast to her husband's quiet manner and instinctive reticence. 

She fully understood the tribulations associated with training racehorses, had a keen interest in pedigrees, and was well attuned to the vagaries of form. Moreover, her temperament was perfectly suited to the entertainment of owners. 

Her natural and unaffected social skills were a crucial factor in ensuring they derived maximum enjoyment from having horses trained by her husband. She was a thorough diplomat in times of crisis, whether it was a question of dealing with difficult stable patrons or deftly sheltering her husband from media intrusion.

Maureen Doran was born in 1929 into a farming family at Kilcruit in County Carlow. One of nine children, she was educated at the Brigidine Convent in Goresbridge where her contemporaries included Evelyn Mullins, a sister of her future husband.

A keen horsewoman, she hunted with the Mount Loftus Harriers, whose point-to-point fixture was hosted on the Mullins farm at Doninga, and competed in local showjumping events.

Patrick Mullins gives his grandmother Maureen a kiss after winning the Morgiana Hurdle on Sharjah in 2021Credit: CAROLINE NORRIS

In 1954 she married Mullins, ten years her senior, who had trained his first winner the year before, Flash Parade in the La Touche Cup over the banks at the Punchestown festival, after obtaining initial experience with his father William and local trainer John Kirwan.

In the year after her marriage, she fulfilled a youthful ambition by riding at the Mount Loftus point-to-point, undeterred by the fact she was pregnant with her first child. She recalled many years later: "I was out of my mind to do it." In the end, discretion got the better of valour, and she pulled up her mount Mulatto in a race won by her husband on Blunt Lady. 

Daughter Sandra was followed into the world by sons Willie, George, Tony and Tom at a time when their father was gradually building up the strength of his stable from modest beginnings.

Mullins juggled the responsibilities of motherhood with an increasingly busy stable life as her husband achieved important milestones, such as a first Irish Grand National win with Vulpine in 1967 and a breakthrough Cheltenham Festival triumph with Herring Gull in the 1968 Totalisator Champion Novices' Chase (now the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase).

The couple's five children all showed a keen interest in horses from an early stage and competed in Pony Club and local showjumping events before setting their sights on the track. She supervised their activities with all her habitual energy and enthusiasm.

By 1980, when Sandra rode her first winner, partnering her mother's homebred I'm Ready in the Ulster Bank Ladies' Race at the Tralee festival, all five children had enjoyed racecourse success

Two years later Mullins enjoyed a personal moment of glory, riding the grey Razzo Forte to win a race for the wives and daughters of trainers at their local Gowran Park track.

As an owner, she won several important Flat handicaps during the 1980s, notably I'm Ready in the Irish Cambridgeshire and Girl In Blue in the 1984 Irish Lincolnshire. In 1985 she got a special thrill from the victory of Pargan, ridden by her eldest son Willie, under a massive 12st 7lb burden in the GPT Amateur Handicap at Galway.

Over jumps, she had a particularly good season in 1989-90, winning 15 races. Her best horses at around this time included Tradehimin, Scally Owen and Irish Wind. In 1998 she achieved a major win over hurdles with Unarmed, who beat the subsequent Grand National winner Amberleigh House in the Jameson Gold Cup Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse.

Towards the end of her husband's career, Mullins had her colours carried to victory 11 times by the versatile Bob What, who completed a quick-fire summer festival four-timer when winning the Guinness Gold Cup at Tralee in 1999, following wins at Killarney, Galway and Tramore. Bob What also won a Listed race over hurdles at Tralee in 2002.

Paddy and Maureen Mullins pictured with the prolific Bob What after he won at Tralee in 2002

Appropriately, the best horse she bred and owned in the last years of her long life in racing was Kilcruit, named after her place of origin. The Stowaway gelding was trained for her by son Tony before being sold to join the Closutton team following his debut second in a bumper at Clonmel in March 2020. The following season he was runner-up to Sir Gerhard at Cheltenham and won the Grade 1 bumper at Punchestown.

For the best part of 70 years Maureen Mullins was one of the most familiar faces on Irish racecourses. She combined grace, charm and style with a thorough grasp of every facet of racing, bound up with an immense and enduring enthusiasm for the sport. In a literal sense, she and her husband provided an essential part of the DNA of Irish jump racing.

Read this next:

Irish racing's great matriarch Maureen Mullins dies aged 94