Masterful Mullins finds missing piece in the jigsaw as Walsh excels again

It was gnawing away at him like a piece of meat stuck between his back molars. It didn’t hurt, and there were times he never even knew it was still there, but it was incredibly annoying and needed to be got rid of. Ireland’s champion jumps trainer had never won Ireland’s richest and most prestigious jumps race.

He first tried in 1998 with Padashpan; twenty-one years and 34 horses later still no luck. To make matters worse, his father, Paddy, won it four times. Enough was enough; it was time to sort out one of the strangest statistics in Irish racing. Willie Mullins needed to win the Irish Grand National and, for his own sanity, sooner rather than later.

Finally, he found a saviour in Burrows Saint.