On the back of the 177th Randox Grand National Willie Mullins could ponder the summit of his extraordinary career and jump racing sifted through the impact of its annual exposure to the global spotlight.
Up to half a billion viewers tuned in to the world’s most famous steeplechase, dwarfing the close on six million tuning in on ITV in Britain and the official 59,920 attendance on the ground in Aintree.
Once again, they had the spectacle of not just the National but racing’s yearly tightrope act. The precarious balance between incident and the potential cost of producing it were once again on show, ultimately appearing to tilt in favour of the sport rather than its critics this time.
Those decrying the modern National as a pale facsimile of its former challenge couldn’t deny the drama of Saturday’s outcome.
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Even a consummate professional like Mullins, who has redefined the boundaries of racing success, was reduced to tears by the sight of his son Patrick riding Nick Rockett to a dramatic victory.
The 33-1 shot led home a pair of stable companions, last year’s winner I Am Maximus and Grangeclare West, while only the home favourite Iroko prevented a total Mullins wipeout by beating Meetingofthewaters to fourth.
“I don’t think anything can be better than this,” exclaimed Mullins as his 35-year-old son, the most successful amateur rider in history, and plotting a course towards 1,000 career winners, secured what will always be the most memorable victory of all.
If Nick Rockett is assured a place on one of the sport’s most illustrious rolls of honour, a welcome short-term result emerged on Sunday for a lot more than just those who backed the winner.
Broadway Boy was one of three fallers in the race, taking a spectacular spill when leading at Valentines on the second circuit. It looked briefly like the worst possible outcome for the Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained horse. But he got up, walked on to a horse ambulance, was assessed, and on Sunday travelled home.
“There’s going to be a couple of weeks of uncertainty for future racing. But it looks a lot more positive than it did yesterday and the most important thing is our horse is coming home and should be okay,” reported the trainer’s son, Willy.
Broadway Boy’s jockey Tom Bellamy broke his wrist in the fall and there was a 10-day ban from the Aintree stewards for Micheál Nolan.
He rode the veteran 125/1 outsider Celebre D’Allen who was pulled up before the final fence and then collapsed. Celebre D’Allen got up and was taken to the racecourse stables for assessment. He emerged on Sunday morning for a pick of grass.
“I haven’t really spoken to the vets about what it really is, but it was probably a combination of the heat and everything. The main thing now is he’s back on the right track,” said trainer Johnson White.
The stewards suspended Nolan for continuing to ride Celebre D’Allen after jumping the penultimate fence.
There were 16 finishers from the 34 runners on Saturday. As well as three fallers, one was brought down, another unseated, and 13 were pulled up in a race much more incident-packed than in 2024. On that occasion there wasn’t a single faller.
It is the perennial National dilemma that with the spotlight comes scrutiny that reflects on jump racing in general.
There was a single fatality over the three-day Aintree festival, and it came in a hurdle race on Thursday. The nature of the sport means casualties are inevitable. It turns the Grand National into an annual test of public attitudes to animal welfare that always puts the sport on the back foot.
How sustainable a situation that is in the long term is unknowable because the sad brutal reality is that it’s only a matter of time before there is again an equine fatality from the National.
But against that is the great old race’s capacity for perfect storylines. Father and son won the big race and then wound up the festival by combining again to win the finale with Green Splendour.
Despite conflicting views, there’s little denying that whoever or whatever is writing Aintree’s scripts keeps coming up the with the goods.
