Paddy Mullins, trained Dawn Run, dies

Paddy Mullins, the trainer of the legendary Dawn Run, widely regarded as the greatest jumping mare in history, died at the age of 91 on Thursday in Ireland.

For 52 years Mullins was one of the leading figures in Irish racing, training top-class winners on both the flat and over jumps.

In Dawn Run he produced the only horse to win both the Champion Hurdle and the Cheltenham Gold Cup. Unfortunately, she died at Auteuil Racecourse in Paris in attempting to add the Grand Course de Haies d’Auteuil, or French Champion Hurdle, to her list of accomplishments.

Mullins trained his first winner, Flash Parade, at Punchestown in 1953 and won a flat classic as recently as 2003 when he engineered the victory of Vintage Tipple in the Irish Oaks. Among his other big-race winners was Hurry Harriet, the winner of the 1973 Champion Stakes at Newmarket, a race Mullins rated as the highlight of his career.

Three of Mullins’ sons – Tom, Willie, and Tony – are trainers, as is his daughter, Sandra McCarthy. Mullins retired from training in February 2005m at which time he turned over his stable in Goresbridge, County Kilkenny, to his son Tom.