Danny Mullins is a Kilkenny-born national hunt jockey. Son of successful trainers Tony Mullins and Mags Mullins, he is also nephew to Willie and Tom Mullins. A star pony-racer in his teens (126 winners) he went on to big wins on the flat, before becoming a champion jumper with two Cheltenham wins under his belt. He lives in Kilkenny city.
GROWING UP, WAS FAMILY LIFE VERY MUCH ABOUT HORSES? Pretty much. My father was Champion Jockey twice and my mother was Champion Lady Rider twice; they both trained horses. Riding was never forced upon us. I just always wanted to do this.
DID YOUR PARENTS EVER TRY TO STEER YOU INTO ANYTHING ELSE? My mother probably said it might be good to be a vet, but I never listened.
DID YOUR PARENTS’ SEPARATION HAVE A BIG IMPACT ON YOU? Not really, because they always got on well. My mother always looked after us very well and my father was always just down the road. Also, all the Mullins cousins are more like brothers, so we’ve stayed a very close-knit family.
DID YOU ENJOY SCHOOL? I boarded at Kilkenny College. I think it stood to me because I learned how to look after myself and stand on my own two feet.
WERE YOU GOOD AT SCHOOL? I had the brains to do adequately well, but once I started pony racing at around 14 or 15, I never really applied myself. I left after the Junior Cert. Looking back, I would think harder about what I could get from school. The teachers probably did not understand the mindset of someone who wanted to be a professional athlete and I rebelled against that.
“I was a thorn in my mother’s side as a teenager, a complete tearaway. I think that horses probably saved me …”
WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST EXPERIENCE OF GRIEF? It might have been when one of my dogs died when I was younger. Granny died recently, but that was a life celebrated rather than a sadness. I know I’ve been lucky on that front.
WERE YOU A BIT OF A MESSER WHEN YOU WERE YOUNGER? I was a thorn in my mother’s side as a teenager, a complete tearaway. I think that horses probably saved me. Once I discovered the desire to win, I learned that to keep winning, I needed to be disciplined. I’d hate to think what path I could have ended up on without horses.
TRAINER BARRY CONNELL TOOK YOU ON WHEN YOU WERE 20. WHAT DID THAT DO FOR YOU? That was my first big job in racing and I was lucky to get it as an inexperienced jump jockey. I had made most of my name riding on the flat so it was always going to be difficult to start my career over jumps. I held the job for less than two years but I got to ride Grade 1 winners, which brought my career to a whole new level. The person who puts you on the first step of the stairs is so important.
WHAT DID YOU LEARN FROM BEING SACKED? In sport, nothing lasts forever. Good or bad, it won’t last forever.
IS THE MULLINS NAME A BONUS OR A DRAWBACK IN YOUR CAREER? More of a bonus. It opened up doors, but then sometimes they were doors I wasn’t ready for. Then I got double the kick, with people saying I only got there because of who I am. I experienced that once or twice early in life and then I always worked extra hard.
HAVE YOU CHOSEN A TOUGH PATH IN LIFE? Very few people get the buzz I get every day doing what I do. I don’t see it as tough, but if you weren’t in love with the animals and the lifestyle in general, you couldn’t do it.
HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH A SETBACK? I don’t worry about what has happened but more so why it has happened. What has happened can’t be changed, but why it happened can influence the future.
IS THERE MORE RESPECT NOW FOR JOCKEYS AS ATHLETES? I would still say that as a sport we’re only starting to catch up. When I was in my early 20s, Ruby Walsh told me that he was going up to Santry Sports Surgery Clinic to see Dr Enda King [Head of Performance Rehabilitation] and he said that if he’d started doing that ten years earlier, he would have bought himself a few more years riding. To hear Ruby Walsh say that, you’d be foolish not to listen. From then on, I took a keen interest in the whole science of it, but maybe it’s only really starting to catch on in general in recent years.
DO YOU THINK ABOUT A LIFE BEYOND BEING A JOCKEY? I’m not stupid, I know that tomorrow could be my last day, but I’ll do everything to stack the percentages in my favour. I do quite a bit of media work now and I give my mother a hand training the horses at home. I’m dipping my toe in a few things.
YOU’D LIKE PEOPLE TO REGARD YOU AS … Happy.
YOUR FRIENDSHIPS ARE FOR THE MOST PART… Solid. I have a lot of acquaintances, but the inner circle is solid.
YOUR MOST PHYSICALLY ATTRACTIVE FEATURE IS IN YOUR OPINION … A good set of teeth.
YOUR STYLE SIGNIFIER IS … I’ve let my hair grow a lot longer. Mostly people tell me it’s awful.
WHEN DO YOU BUY CLOTHES? Only when I have to. I’ll go in to Duggan’s in Kilkenny and ask for the few bits I need, they’ll go around the shop and pick them up, and within 20 minutes, I’ve left the shop. If I can get my yearly shop done in under half an hour, I’m happy.
DO YOU USE SKINCARE PRODUCTS? I would use moisturiser and I’ve been told to buy it with SPF. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t.
WHAT DID YOU MOST RECENTLY LISTEN TO? I do love podcasts. Diary of a CEO is a favourite. I might only pick up one thing from each episode but it might allow me to find that extra one percent in some part of my life.
A HOLIDAY YOU’D LIKE TO REPEAT? I went on a horseback safari in South Africa a few years ago and I’d love to do something like that again. I’ve been watching Yellowstone and I’ve got the itch to be a cowboy, so a holiday in Montana would be class.
WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO COOK AT HOME? I can cook but I don’t cook. I don’t mind the cooking, but I hate cleaning up.
DO YOU HAVE A HOBBY? I’ve done a bit of rally driving. A bit of go-karting might be in the future, because the rally driving is so expensive.
ARE YOU GOOD AT SWITCHING OFF? I’m good at switching off from work, but I wouldn’t find it as easy to switch off in general. I’m guilty of flicking through reels on Instagram, when what I really love is walking along the river with my dogs, which is really switching off.
Mullins has just raced in the Guinness Kerry National Handicap Chase at the Listowel Harvest Festival.