Patrick Mullins becomes most successful amateur rider of all time with 546th career win
The son of champion trainer Willie Mullins reached the landmark figure at Sligo on Sunday evening
PATRICK MULLINS was on Sunday evening crowned the winning-most amateur jockey in National Hunt history.
The twenty-eight-year-old overtook Ted Walsh's record of 545 career victories with success aboard his father's Queens Boulevard at Sligo.
It was a record-breaking ride straight out of the Patrick Mullins handbook, as both he and his mount stalked the pace before sauntering into the lead.
The pair went clear but before Mullins could celebrate, he had to hold a late thrust from Just A Boy, who only narrowly failed to reel the leaders in.
The victory probably won't be high on the list of Mullins' big-race successes, but the son of champion trainer Willie was delighted to have broken the record.
He said: "It's fantastic and something quite cool.
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"Obviously I couldn't have done it without what my parents have built in Closutton and on what my grandparents built in Duninga before that.
"I'm in a very privileged position and get a lot of opportunities. It's good to be able to make the most of them.
"I'm riding for Willie Mullins, so that makes the job a lot easier."
The jockey, who still retains an amateur licence despite many of his colleagues acknowledging he's good enough to turn pro, has had plenty of success at the highest level, including Grade 1 victories aboard Douvan and Un De Sceaux.
One of his most memorable rides came when he nicked a lead aboard Wicklow Brave in the 2017 Punchestown Champion Hurdle, coaxing all he could out of his mount to hold on from My Tent Or Yours.
He went on: "It's something I was told about a few years ago when I got the record in a calendar year and it's something I've been aiming for.
"It would be nice to get to a thousand. It's taken me 12 years to get this far so if I rode till I was 40 - my father did that - I might do it.
"I see Derek (O'Connor) with a thousand point-to-point winners, so that's probably the next aim, but that's a long way off."