LOOKING back over many years of watching the Grand National at Aintree, it is even-money at the conclusion of the race that someone will say, “the evidence was there all the time” as we agree that the winner could well have been our tip for the race.

This was especially so on Saturday, yet Nick Rockett was allowed to go off at odds of 33/1.

Had the gelding been trained by anyone other than Willie Mullins, he would surely have been a fraction of that price. However, Nick Rockett was part of an incredibly strong team for the reigning British and Irish champion trainer, and some of them were considered to be stronger fancies. What transpired was magical and historic, with Mullins saddling the first three home, and the winner being partnered by his and Jackie’s son Patrick. Just when you think that Willie and the team at Closutton cannot better their achievements, they go and do something special.

For this writer personally, Willie Mullins is simply the best, as a trainer and as a human being. He, Jackie, Patrick and those who work with them are deserving of all that they have achieved, and they take nothing for granted. Their detailed planning leaves nowt to chance, and even when things do not go to plan, they accept defeat with amazing grace.

As I whispered to the trainer that the odds of a second British championship were shortening after he won the second race at Aintree on Thursday, little did I know that I should have backed my prediction with some hard cash.

No surprise

Nick Rockett’s two starts prior to winning the Randox Grand National were in the Grade 3 Goffs Thyestes Chase and the Grade 3 Bobbyjo Chase at Fairyhouse, both races being considered stepping stones to a tilt at Aintree. After his Gowran Park success I wrote in this column that “he is very lightly raced, and it would come as no surprise were he to become the third Thyestes Chase winner of recent times to succeed at Aintree”.

Kieran D Cotter, based beside the Woodhouse Estate in Co Waterford, bred the son of Walk In The Park (Montjeu). He is marred to Emma, daughter of Demi O’Byrne, and the couple sell their stock from Woodhouse Stud, the land once being part of the estate. Kieran has one of Britain’s leading commercial property investment practices. While he has changed strategy in recent years, having been breeding for some 15 years with a large broodmare band, he now concentrates on buying foals.

There are a busy few months ahead for Cotter as he will have significant drafts of stores to offer at the three major sales in Doncaster, Kill and Fairyhouse. He is very hands on with his involvement with the horses, and when I spoke with him this week, he laughed that “it has taken me 20 years to become an overnight success, but look, the horse is the hero here, to finish so strongly after carrying that weight was phenomenal. The ride Patrick gave him was flawless and for Willie to win the Thyestes, Bobbyjo and Grand National in such a short space of time was an incredible feat of training. I’m also delighted for the owner who comes across as a genuine sportsman. He truly deserved this fantastic result”.

Nick Rockett was among 15 stores that Cotter had to sell during the first pandemic lockdown, and with sales dates being constantly moved, he decided to sell a number of horses privately. The first batch of seven sold to Cormac and Sean Doyle, and five of them won first time out. Meanwhile, Demi and Timmy O’Byrne came and saw Nick Rockett, loved the horse and bought him for Roddy O’Byrne.

Curraghmore Estate

Nick Rockett started his racing career with Pat Doyle in Holycross, and won on his debut when landing a nine-runner four-year-old maiden point-to-point at the wonderful Curraghmore Estate in Waterford, owned by the Beresford family. While he was perhaps a little disappointing to only finish fourth on his racecourse bow a little more than 13 months later at Fairyhouse, Nick Rockett did have Stellar Story half a length back in fifth. He then won three on the trot, a bumper and two hurdle races, ending his short career over the smaller obstacles with a win in a Grade 2 novice at Fairyhouse.

He has shown himself to be consistent over fences, winning four of his nine starts, and last season finished third to stablemate Minella Cocooner in the Grade 3 bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown. After a pleasing seasonal debut at the Leopardstown Christmas meeting, he has been unbeaten in three runs, and rates as one of the best quality winners of the Aintree centrepiece. He is the ultimate realisation of a plan that Kieran Cotter hatched at the Goffs Land Rover Sale 10 years ago when he paid €10,000 for a daughter of Flemensfirth (Alleged) who was sold from another Waterford farm, the McCarthy’s The Beeches Stud.

Well-bred filly

Cotter did not intend racing the well-bred filly, rather to breed from her. Ironically, this was the same plan that the McCarthy father and son duo of Bobby and Robert had a decade earlier with the filly who turned out to be the dam of Ballyburn! Named Eireann Rose, Cotter’s purchase is now in the history books as the dam of a Grand National winner, and who knows what could still lie ahead for Saturday’s headline maker.

Nick Rockett is the second foal from his dam and she has four winning siblings, and is a full-sister to three of them. The best of them is Emily Gray (Flemensfirth), and she was successful in a couple of listed chases in England before Kim Bailey sent her over to win, on her penultimate start, the Grade 3 John and Chich Fowler Memorial EBF Mares Chase at Fairyhouse. Emily Grey raced against the very best, and was second to the likes of Ma Filleule, Glen’s Melody and Vroum Vroum Mag. Emily Gray retired to stud having won three hurdle races and four chases, earned £110,000, and she won or was placed in eight blacktype races.

Eireann Rose and Emily Gray’s full-brother Pride Ofthe Parish (Flemensfirth) was runner-up in a Grade 3 hurdle race, while Honor Grey (Flemensfirth) has now won four times over hurdles. Eireann Rose’s third dam was Rose Ravine (Deep Run). That mare’s seven hurdle wins included the 1985 Grade 1 Stayers’ Hurdle at Cheltenham and she was runner-up in the Aintree Hurdle.

Fulke Walwyn

Rose Ravine was trained by Fulke Walwyn and the best of her eight winners at stud was Cardinal Red (The Parson) who carried the colours of Mrs Walwyn to success in the Grade 1 Sefton Novices’ Hurdle at Aintree over Gaelstrom. He was reversing form with the runner-up, who the previous month beat him into second place in the Grade 1 Sun Alliance Novices’ Hurdle at Cheltenham.

Aintree has played a significant role in the success of this family, and never more so than at the weekend. Rose Ravine’s second blacktype winner, Ringaroses (Karinga Bay), also gained the most important of his seven wins at the course, landing a Grade 3 handicap hurdle, a race in which he was also runner-up on another occasion. Another son of Rose Ravine to perform with some distinction was Frosty Canyon (Arctic Lord). Frustratingly, he won two bumpers and three times each over hurdles and fences, and in all three codes he was runner-up in a Grade 2 contest.

Rose Ravine was bred by James Hogan, father of Nenagh trainer Tom Hogan. James developed the family for generations, beginning with a mare named Waterdale (Brian Water) he bought in 1929 from a Mrs O’Sullivan of Greenfort, Blarney, Co Cork. James saw the mare advertised in The Irish Field and bought her for £20. According to Tom, his father rode the mare in her only race, a point-to-point in Miltown Malbay, which also featured brothers Vincent and Phonsie O’Brien.