Latest news with #IAmMaximus
Daily Mirror
01-05-2025
- Sport
- Daily Mirror
Retiring Jody McGarvey on "horrific" injuries and riding 'frightening' horse
Jody McGarvey chats to trainer Willie Mullins after riding I Am Maximus to victory in the 2023 Bar One Racing Drinmore Novice Chase at Fairyhouse (Image: PA) Jody McGarvey opened up on the injury battles he has faced and recapped his favourite career moment as he signed off from the saddle. The Irishman retired after riding 3-1 favourite Mirazur West into third place in a Listed handicap chase at Punchestown's five-day festival. It brought to an end 16 years of competitive action for McGarvey, whose biggest wins came in the colours he bowed out in, those of leading owner JP McManus. Although it was not a fairytale result for the rider, he said he had McManus to thank for giving him some of his best days in the sport, including on the enigmatic Great Field. It was at Punchestown's big meeting eight years ago where McGarvey made a Grade One breakthrough aboard the Willie Mullins-saddled operator, keeping calm as his saddle slipped. In the same season there was further drama when Great Field tripped and nearly unshipped him at Leopardstown's final fence. READ MORE: Brutal fight with WHIPS leads to 60-day ban as tempers boil over after race "He was thrill a minute," McGarvey told the Racing Post. "He'd frighten the life out of anyone but I got to go round here and win my first Grade 1 here. That was a standout day." Dad-to-be McGarvey, who hails from Derry, told Racing TV how he faced a constant battle to stay fit. "You could say I have been a bit unlucky my whole career," he said. "Every time I was getting a run at it I had some horrific injuries. I broke my neck, my back on a separate occasion and had shoulder injuries - I think I have had six surgeries or something like that. "Every time I'm coming back I'm getting older and it's harder. Content cannot be displayed without consent "I have enjoyed most of it. The game at the top is getting much tighter and there are so many good lads out there, it is hard to find your place. " McGarvey, who rode his first winner for McManus on Code Of The West at Down Royal in 2012, also helped guide the career of 2024 Grand National hero I Am Maximus. Before the star's Aintree display, horse and jockey teamed up successfully in the Drinmore and Bobbyjo chases around Fairyhouse. Like his final mount, I Am Maximus was trained by Willie Mullins, National Hunt racing's leading handler on both sides of the Irish Sea. "It's a pity I didn't get the fairytale end I hoped for, but look I rode a favourite at the Punchestown Festival for Willie Mullins and JP. It doesn't really get much bigger than that," McGarvey said. "I led them down to the last and it just didn't work out. He added: "I'm going out with my head held high. I'm incredibly thankful that after all the injuries I have come out the other side. I haven't loved every minute of it but I had great craic along the way!"
The Irish Sun
01-05-2025
- Sport
- The Irish Sun
Emotional moment Irish jockey retires from horseracing at Punchestown as he says ‘I've had great craic along the way'
JOCKEY Jody McGarvey announced his retirement at Punchestown, insisting "I've had great craic along the way". The multiple Grade 1 winner rounded out his career by riding the Willie Mullins-trained Mirazur West to third in the handicap chase. Advertisement 1 Jody McGarvey, centre, has retired Credit: Seb Daly/Sportsfile Speaking to RacingTV, McGarvey said he was going out with his head held high - even if his time in the saddle did not end the way he wanted. He said: "It's something I have been thinking about for a while and at the start of the season, as I do every year, I set myself goals. "I told my partner Shauna at the start of the year if I don't achieve those goals, I would look to do something else. "I have had a good career, not a great one, but I have enjoyed most of it. As I say, I set myself a target of winners for the year that I would get on a good horse and it just wasn't happening for me. Advertisement Read More on Punchestown "I would rather go out now on my own terms when I feel I am riding well and getting opportunities at festivals like this rather than dragging my heels for a couple of years. "The last thing I want is to go out with a chip on my shoulder so I will go out with my head held high. "It was a pity I didn't get the fairytale end that I hoped for but, look, I rode a favourite at "I have gone out in one piece; a lot of people haven't been that lucky. We lost Michael O'Sullivan during the year and that hit hard. Advertisement Most read in Horse Racing "I am incredibly grateful that after all the injuries I had, I came out the other side. "Myself and my partner are expecting a baby next month. I was never going to be a jockey forever. I haven't loved every minute of it but I have had great craic along the way." Shocking moment jockey is hit in the head after horse crashes into railings in chaotic race at Punchestown Festival McGarvey rode a trio of Grade One winners for The first came on Great Field in the Ryanair Novice Chase at the 2017 Punchestown Festival . Advertisement He went on to ride I Am Maximus to victory at Fairyhouse in 2023 and in the Bobbyjo Chase last year. Along the way, though, he has suffered injury pain, and is glad to have had the experiences he has had while able. He added: "I have had some horrific injuries. "I broke my neck, I broke my back on a separate occasion and there were shoulder injuries and six surgeries or something like that. Advertisement "The older I am getting it is harder to come back. I am going out with my head held high. I have enjoyed most of it. "The game at the top is getting much tighter and there are so many good lads out there. "It is hard to find your place now and I would like to go out when I am still getting rides and still able to go out on good ones. "I have worked incredibly hard, I have met a lot of nice people and I have been lucky to ride for some good people. Advertisement "I am incredible grateful to those people, moreso JP McManus and Frank Berry. Frank has been such a big part of my career. "Christy Roche got me started. Only for Christy I probably wouldn't have made it as a jockey. "I would hate to be a young fella starting out now, it is so tough. "Starting off I probably wouldn't have been good enough to have made it but Christy nursed me and I got there in the end." Advertisement
Irish Daily Mirror
21-04-2025
- Sport
- Irish Daily Mirror
Which horses is Willie Mullins running in the 2025 Irish Grand National?
Willie Mullins runs horses in this year's BoyleSports Irish Grand National as he seeks to win the race for the third time. The Carlow handler had to wait a long time to taste victory in the Fairyhouse race. Burrows Saint, steered by Ruby Walsh, obliged in 2019 to the delight of favourite backers. And he only had to wait four years for his next victory. In 2023, I Am Maximus was an impressive winner before going on to win the Aintree Grand National the following year. This time around, Mullins, who is also chasing the UK trainers' championship, has a relatively small squad for the race. His team is headlined by Quai De Bourbon, who will be ridden by his number one stable jockey Paul Townend. Quai De Bourbon has not completed the course on his last two starts - falling and unseating - but looks like a classy sort that could develop into a Grade 1 chaser. Mullins also runs the JP McManus-owned Sa Majeste, who was last seen running a cracker to finish third in the Kim Muir Handicap Chase at the Cheltenham Festival. Sa Majeste will be the ride of Simon Torrens in the big race.
The Independent
08-04-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
Why Grand National winning jockey won't receive a penny in prize money
Patrick Mullins will not receive any prize money for his efforts in steering Nick Rockett to victory in the 2025 Grand National on Saturday. The 35-year-old experienced a whirlwind of emotions as he edge his charge to the finish post at Aintree ahead of previous champion I Am Maximus to claim the victory. Alongside the Cheltenham Gold Cup, the Grand National is the biggest prize in horseracing and the one race that jockeys aim to win before the end of their careers. Mullins' achievement is even more impressive given he is classed as an amateur jockey though that means he does not get to share in the financial rewards. Winning jockeys usually take home about 8% of the prize money with those who place (finish in the top two to six depending on the race) receiving around 4%. For the Grand National that equates to around £40,000 for the winning jockey but as Mullins is an amatuer he does not receive a fee for riding. In theory, amateur jockeys race for pleasure over making a living but it is not uncommon to see them participate in both flat and jump races against professionals. Mullins comes from a horseracing family which includes his trainer dad Willie, trainer cousin Emmet and jockey cousin David, i the latest to taste victory in the Grand National. He said: "I had too good a start and was having to take him [Nick Rockett] back all the way. I was wondering at the Canal Turn had I lost too much ground, but he just jumped fantastic. Then I was there too soon and it is a long way from the back of the last with Paul [Townend, riding I Am Maximus] on my outside. "It's everything I've dreamed of since I was a kid. I know it's a cliche, but when I was five or six years old, I was reading books about the National and watching black and white videos of Red Rum. To put my name there is very special." Willie Mullins, who trained the winning horse said he was just thinking about his son riding the winner. He explained: 'I was single-mindedly thinking about Patrick riding the winner. "Patrick comes in every morning and runs the whole show. He's very precise and concise about things. He knows what to do and when to do it. I am absolutely delighted for him. "You dream about winning big races here and there but the first race we saw growing up was the Grand National in black and white. We all lived every year for the horse you were going to back in the National - and the owners and trainers of the National runners were heroes in our game."
Forbes
07-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
The 2025 Grand National: How The British Do England's Best Horse Race
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - APRIL 05: I Am Maximus ridden by jockey Paul Townsend goes over The Chair Fence before finishing second in the Randox Grand National Handicap Chase during Grand National Day at Aintree Racecourse on April 05, 2025 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by) The 177th running of Britain's Grand National Chase on April 5 was full to bursting with athletic talent, 34 runners in all, competing in the four-mile steeplechase over brush barriers such as 'The Chair' fence, pictured top being conquered by a sailing top-favorite I Am Maximus, trained by the iconic Irish trainer/steeplechase god Willie Mullins. Those branches coming off in the foreground, to Maximus' left? They were left tumbling by the horse slightly in front of him, who's just dashed out of frame. If hit, the brush fence is meant to 'shed' like that. Forbidding as 'The Chair' is if you are mounted on a jumper hell-bent for it, and it is damned forbidding, the sustained chaos of a 30-plus field will inevitably prevent some runners from arriving in position to clear it without breaking stride, taking fences in stride being pretty much the precision-demanding trick in winning steeplechase races. Thus: The fence's flexible 'shedding,' such as it is, helps keep any runners who don't launch and clear from tumbling and hurting themselves and their jocks. TOPSHOT - Racegoers arrive on the final day of the Grand National Festival horse race meeting at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, north-west England, on April 5, 2025. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP) (Photo by OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images) The customary rakish millinery and the supporting costume for the Grand National are as honed and extravagantly 19th-century as the racing. Given the season and the ur-British garden tradition, flowers are the rule. The most extravagant toppers and suitings are reserved for Ladies Day, traditionally held on the festival's Fridays. Pictured above and below, just a few of the racegoers in the 2025 Ladies Day Style Awards, Aintree's dress competition that is very nearly as hard-fought as the Grand National itself. Excello ridden by Nico de Boinville competes in the Topham Handicap Chase on day two of the Grand National Festival at Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool. Picture date: Friday April 4, 2025. (Photo by Danny Lawson/PA Images via Getty Images) The star racing feature of the weekend, the 2025 Grand National, was won by the champion Irish trainer Willie Mullins, 68, who — in addition to saddling the favorite, I Am Maximus, the bookmakers' 2025 favorite precisely because he won the 2024 Grand National for Mullins — also saddled the eventual 2025 winner Nick Rockett. That horse was guided on Saturday's 4-mile odyssey by jockey Patrick Mullins, none other than the trainer's son. Living almost up to his odds, I Am Maximus turned in a strong place showing. In other words, the exacta was what we might call a 'Full Mullins.' We could fairly say that the 2024 and 2025 victories are firmly in the Mullins ancestral DNA: Mullins is himself the son of a trainer — his mother Maureen was a successful breeder — raised in County Kilkenny, and with 110 victories to date, he's the most successful trainer racing at Britain's Cheltenham. As such, Mullins and his wife Jackie are very much on the British royal social radar: The pair were invited by Charles to ride in the his first-ever procession as king at the opening of the Royal Ascot meeting in 2023. Pictured below, channeling her inner Eliza Dolittle-at-Ascot in My Fair Lady — a Grand National Ladies Day attendee gives a master-class in how to do black and white in spring. TOPSHOT - Ladies Day fashions on display on day two of the Grand National Festival horse race meeting at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, north-west England, on April 4, 2025. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP) (Photo by OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images) It's not an accident that the famous 1944 Elizabeth Taylor and Mickey Rooney film National Velvet centered its narrative around a sleeper-superstar of a horse being trained and ridden (by the character Velvet Brown, played by Taylor) in the Aintree Grand National Chase. Is there such a thing as a spoiler for National Velvet? Velvet Brown 'won' the race but was dismounted by a fall, thus was disqualified. The film, directed by Clarence Brown and filmed mostly in northern California, was the adolescent Taylor's big break into Hollywood, a town that she ultimately never left. Below, two especially careful 2025 Grand National Ladies Day amateur botanists demonstrate the extreme planar geometry of placing the straw in relation to the blooms. TOPSHOT - Ladies Day fashions on display on day two of the Grand National Festival horse race meeting at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, north-west England, on April 4, 2025. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP) (Photo by OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images) Pictured below, jockey Paul Townend clears a low knockdown hurdle aboard the artistically named Salvator Mundi in the Grand National's Top Novices' Hurdle. He may not have saved the world, but he did go on to win the race. Salvator Mundi ridden by Paul Townend on their way to winning the Top Novices' Hurdle on day two of the Randox Grand National Festival at Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool. Picture date: Friday April 4, 2025. (Photo by Danny Lawson/PA Images via Getty Images) Liverpool can get quite frosty in late March and early April, what with gales blowing in off the Irish Sea, but the rule at Aintree on Grand National weekend, and with emphasis on Ladies Day, is: Skin is in. Hence, in the two shots of racegoers below, off the shoulder frocks and spaghetti straps in addition to the good headgear. In British fashion parlance, the signature single flower, attended occasionally by a bit of lace, is called a fascinator. What gale off the Irish Sea? Who needs a coat? The fascinator and the spaghetti strap bring their own warmth. TOPSHOT - A racegoer poses for a photo as Ladies Day fashions are seen on display on day two of the Grand National Festival horse race meeting at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, north-west England, on April 4, 2025. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP) (Photo by OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images) Racegoers on day two of the Randox Grand National Festival at Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool. Picture date: Friday April 4, 2025. (Photo by Mike Egerton/PA Images via Getty Images) TOPSHOT - Racegoers pose for a photo as Ladies Day fashions are seen on display on day two of the Grand National Festival horse race meeting at Aintree Racecourse in Liverpool, north-west England, on April 4, 2025. (Photo by Oli SCARFF / AFP) (Photo by OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images)
