Emmet Mullins: 'There's no money in training - I wonder how some yards survive'

Grand National-winning trainer Emmet Mullins has spoken about the difficulties of making training pay after expressing concern over how yards will continue to survive in the industry.

Mullins rode 94 winners as a jockey before taking out a training licence in 2015, and has gone on to train Graded winners in Ireland, Britain and France, as well as etching his name into the history books when Noble Yeats won the Grand National last April.

Speaking at a press morning on Wednesday, Mullins admitted that training has proved a difficult venture and says much of his operation is owed to recently selling a homebred filly for a six-figure sum.

"There's no money in training," said Mullins. "I bred, owned and trained a winning filly called Thebestisyettobe. That was as big a thrill as I've got. I sold her on and I've been able to subsidise the training as there's no money in it.

"There's so many costs, everything is going up and it's so hard to attract owners. More yards are having to stomach more at this time. I look at some of the yards and wonder how they are surviving. It's not looking good."

Mullins also outlined why he chose to get into training, having been down the pecking order of riders for his uncle, Willie Mullins.

"I don't know if the scales would let me be a jockey anymore," said Mullins. "That was one part of the battle, but I wasn't good enough. At the time, there was 90 less horses in Willie's yard. You had Paul Townend, Ruby Walsh, David Casey – I was too far down the list. I wasn't doing as well as I would have liked and wanted to try something I thought I could be better at. I wasn't happy with the lesser rides and that was a lot to do with it.

"Whatever sort of a mentality I have is to see it, deal with it, move on and don't dwell on it. That's why I haven't had it hit home that I've trained a Grand National winner, I'm too busy looking for next year's winner. I keep looking forward and never back."

Emmet Mullins (right) with last year's Grand National winner Noble YeatsCredit: Mark Cranham

Mullins' interest in the Flat and breeding has certainly done more good than harm to his future plans. Despite admitting the difficulties that come with jump racing, he stated his determination to pursue that passion as a labour of love.

"It's about diversity," he said. "You have to keep it as a year-round project and hope there'll be some bit of trading going on to keep cash flow going. The Flat is definitely more commercial. In the few years that I've been training I've sold horses to China, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia. It's worldwide, I have all the markets.

"If I train a bumper or jumps winner, I have Ireland and England and that's it. That's where my love is, but it's definitely harder."

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