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JUMPING THE FENCE David Mullins on moving from jockey to bloodstock agent
FROM GRADE 1-WINNING JOCKEY TO Bloodstock Agent
DAVID MULLINS TELLS BREANDÁN Ó hUALLACHÁIN ABOUT HIS MOVE FROM PROFESSIONAL JOCKEY TO BLOODSTOCK AGENT.
David Mullins, born into one of the most prominent racing families in Ireland, took many by surprise in 2021, by deciding to forego the life of a professional National Hunt jockey and move into the role of bloodstock agent.
“I hadn’t been enjoying the life of a jockey for a couple of years,” admits the nine-time Grade 1-winning rider. “For two or three years, I just didn’t enjoy it enough to put into it what I wanted to get out of it. It wasn’t a very secure job; it’s not like you can retire a er race-riding. I don’t think it’s a sustainable life. I didn’t want to nish at 35 and then try and work out what I wanted to do,” Mullins explains.
So, at the young age of 24, why turn to the role of bloodstock agent, as a post race-riding career?
“I was buying a few for myself mainly and for one or two other people. I always lled in what I thought of every horse I saw at a National Hunt store sale. It was always interesting to go back and see them in a year’s time or whenever they reach the track. I always liked keeping an eye on them. To be honest, I’ve done that for ve or six years and I’ve always thought I would make a good hand of it, and I didn’t think I was too bad at it. at’s what gave me the con dence to give up one thing and start another.
“I get a massive thrill out of watching horses going around sales’ rings. I don’t know what it is. I like that side of horses. I’ve seen a lot of good horses at the trainers I rode for and I was always watching the shape of them. When I go to the sales, obviously the walk and the page mean a lot, but I always look for similarities with good horses I’ve seen in other yards.”
Clockwise from top: Aintree Grand National Win; Patrick, Emmet & David Mullins Goffs; David Mullins Tattersalls Ireland.
Mullins previously bought Court Maid for €1,800 and she went on to win eight times. Late last year, David Mullins Bloodstock was involved in the £130,000 purchase of Belfast Banter who will now race in the USA “where there is a really good programme with some great prize money” the now-retired jockey states.
Life now for David Mullins is very di erent to what is was as a rider:
“Some weeks I can be at out, other weeks can be fairly quiet,” he explains. “I look up sales or auctions to try and learn as much as I can about the industry.”
In his new role, “I have to make sure you know what is there. I have to get to know the pages, have to get to know what is going on,” David discloses. “I have to put in the hours looking up details of hundreds of foals or yearlings, Flat or National Hunt; it is crucial.”
David Mullins’ main hope for the immediate future is “to buy good horses for whoever that may be.”
