School reunion led to Mullins landing Nick Rockett

Willie Mullins has explained how his budding friendship with Nick Rockett’s owner Stewart Andrew resulted in them enjoying a fairytale Grand National triumph at Aintree.

Bradford-born Andrew and the champion trainer are perhaps unlikely bedfellows, but the duo met through Andrew’s wife Sadie when she convinced her husband to buy a horse to send to the master of Closutton and it has become a relationship which has strengthened since Sadie’s death in December 2022.

It was a trip to Australia for the Melbourne Cup the following year which saw Andrew inducted into the Mullins clan, with the Yorkshireman going on to revel in Nick Rockett’s success alongside the master of Closutton.

“I had gone to school with Sadie and then it would have been 60 years before I met her again at Cheltenham when she had a horse with Fergal O’Brien,” explained Mullins.

“Going home that evening, she asked Stewart to buy a horse to be in training with me and that’s how Nick Rockett ended up with me.

“Nick Rockett has been fantastic for Stewart. I didn’t know Stewart that well other than he was Sadie’s husband and he was just like anyone would be after their wife has just died.

“Anyway, he heard we had a runner going to the Melbourne Cup and asked for tickets and I just said to him why don’t you just join our team, as I had half a dozen pals going out to Australia with me.

“We had runners, I think it was Vauban’s first go at the race, but we were mainly heading out to enjoy ourselves and he fitted in fantastically and we had great fun.

“He came back out again this year and whenever Stewart comes over to Ireland, my pals make sure they pick him up from the airport and look after him and we all get on like a house on fire, which is really special.”