How Nick Rockett won the Grand National

The Mullins family will never forget the 2025 Grand National and legendary trainer Willie Mullins believes it was the crowning achievement of his glittering career.

That is because he had a 1-2-3 in the race, but more importantly his son Patrick was on board the winner.

A second consecutive victory in the race for Willie Mullins, they may as well keep the trophy at Closutton permanently from now on.

There are many factors that contributed to this success and we’ll take a look at them here and consider how the race unfolded.

How the race unfolded

Gavin Cromwell recently remarked that to win the Grand National in modern times you don’t need the traditional staying type of horse, but rather a fast one who can keep up with the strong early pace and possesses a bit of class.

Nick Rockett’s two-and-a-half-length victory gives some credence to that point of view, as he raced prominently throughout and was always in touch with the leaders. The eight-year-old travelled strongly during the race and always looked dangerous.

There was loads more to come, however, as he put in his best work late on, when most of the field was running out of gas. Patrick Mullins was sat still on the approach to the final fence, whilst his rivals were hard at work and once he said go, the result was never in doubt.

Last year’s winner I Am Maximus provided stiff competition on the run-in and was with him all the way until Nick Rockett asserted himself in the final 110 yards. The winner was carrying plenty of weight, as was the runner-up, so it’s quite telling that they filled the first two places.

Willie Mullins’ stranglehold on the race was further solidified by Grangeclare West finishing third, providing him with a 1-2-3-5-7. Clearly being up with the pace and staying out of trouble gives you the best chance of winning, but you need to be on the right horse for those tactics to pay off.

The ideal profile

Nick Rockett didn’t have many negatives attached to him going into the race and perhaps the only one was a rating of 163 and a burden of 11st 8lb. Connections hadn’t been minding his mark this season and it’s now obvious why.

Winning the Thyestes Chase at Gowran in January, that’s a decent prize to win in its own right, but usually such a performance would blow a horse’s handicap mark. Clearly he had more in the tank however as he managed to get the job done at Aintree off a significantly higher mark.

The Bobbyjo Chase at Fairyhouse was next up and that Grade 3 event is a well regarded Grand National trial for Irish horses. Importantly that race comes after the Grand National weights have come out, so you can run well without being penalised.

He did his best work late on once again over that 3m2f trip and managed to out-battle Intense Raffles, who was very well fancied for the big one at Aintree.

This son of Walk In The Park had all but proved his stamina with his staying-on third in the bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown the previous April as well, making him the ideal type for a Grand National.

All in all there were many factors that contributed to Nick Rockett’s success. An intelligent ride, excellent training performance, a touch of class and almost limitless stamina are chief amongst them and it’s hard to argue that he wasn’t a deserved winner with all that in mind.