Trainer Willie Mullins (L) poses for a photograph with his wife Jackie and his son jockey Patrick Mullins, after his 100th win with Jasmin De Vaux winning the Champion Bumper race on the second day of the Cheltenham Festival at Cheltenham Racecourse, in Cheltenham, western England on March 13, 2024. (Photo by Ben Stansall / AFP)
Paris: Irish training legend Willie Mullins admitted he inherited some of his late mother Maureen's traits of putting people at ease, in being diplomatic and thinking outside the box.
It was the 67-year-old's son Patrick, also his assistant trainer, who told the Irish Examiner that is what sets his father apart from rivals such as Gordon Elliott and Nicky Henderson.
This ability as well as 200 horses -- which he had to build up again when Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary took away 60 horses in 2016 -- has brought unprecedented success and dominance in jumps racing.
Mullins's brilliance -- with typical humility and generosity of spirit he praises his team which also includes his wife Jackie -- brought up a historic 100 winners at the sport's showpiece the Cheltenham Festival on Wednesday.
History, though, has been part and parcel of his life dating back to his late father Paddy training the extraordinary mare Dawn Run to become the only horse to achieve the Champion Hurdle/Cheltenham Gold Cup double.
Mullins recalled in an interview with The Guardian earlier this month a lesson he learned from his father ahead of Dawn Run's tilt at the Champion Hurdle in 1984.
"News came through that the favourite Gaye Brief would not make it," he said.
"We were cheering and one of the journalists asked: 'What do you think, Paddy?' My dad just said: 'There, but for the grace of God, go I.'
"It brought me back to my senses. "I never forgot what he said."
Indeed although some bemoan Mullins's standing head and shoulders above the rest he observes plenty of his odds on favourites are beaten, lkie red-hot favourite El Fabiolo in Wednesday's Champion Chase.
