David Mullins retires aged 24

supremenovice

Headline on Racing Post website (behind a paywall). No other news outlets covering it yet.
Shocking news really at such a young age

Coneygree

I always felt he was an very talented jockey and a fantastic judge of horses in general. One of the few in Willie's who'd actually tell you the truth. Always a good one to have on a preview panel. Natural horse man.

He's clearly fallen out of love with the game. Might just need a break like Mikey Fogarty. He's still incredibly young although he's got a decent launch pad if he wants to go training horses.

GreenRdBoy

Had a spinal injury not that long ago. Possibly related to that.

RivetingRoger

I'd say the boy is starving.
Genuinely.
I dunno how they do it.
Respect to him. Would never put you off backing a horse

supremenovice

Particularly surprising given the time of year with all the Spring festivals on the horizon (no Cheltenham festival wins yet)

Andrew00

Fantastic jockey

Kauto

Andrew00 wrote: »

Fantastic jockey

Its a horrible existence and not worth it if you are not in the top 5 or 6 jockeys in Ireland anyways.

The Tetrarch

It is a bit like when Joseph O'Brien retired as a jockey.
I was glad he retired.
The suffering to do the weight is too much for your mind.

Coneygree

Never realised he was into the sales. He bought Court Maid for less than 2 grand and she turned out very nicely.

naughto

He will eat like a horse for a month now that he can.
Like any job theres always easier ones if you have the right connections.

The Mig

He was on Friday night racing yesterday with Ger Gilroy and Johnny Ward. No issues with injuries or keeping weight off(mentions he struggles to even put on weight). Sounds like he was just fed up being a jockey!

del roy

The Mig wrote: »

He was on Friday night racing yesterday with Ger Gilroy and Johnny Ward. No issues with injuries or keeping weight off(mentions he struggles to even put on weight). Sounds like he was just fed up being a jockey!

Heard this, just sounds as if he thought the life style was not worth it.

BTW lads I often clog up racing threads with stats and views/thoughts but they are not for everyone, its mainly just reading material, you can read it here


http://www.letsbet.ie/forum/showthread.php?15691-Tips-(from-paid-guessers)

banoffe2

admire his courage to walk away, its not an easy sport to walk away from, no doubt there are more lows than highs in this high risk sport, fair play to him and wish him the best of luck

Motivator

Good luck to him. I always thought he was a decent jockey, not a top class one but a decent one. He’ll have made plenty money and had some nice Grade 1 winners but I often saw him off the track and the chap never looked happy. I’d often see him in filling stations after racing and he just looked fed up all the time. The fall he got at Thurles last year was a nightmare and he was lucky to be walking after it never mind riding.

He has the connections and the cop on to do well at buying and selling so I’m sure he’ll do well at it.

Joe_ Public

Listened to his interview on rte yesterday, came across so well. He was asked about the timing, why not wait until end of busy festival season, and said that would have been the natural thing to do but didnt think it would be fair to owners to be riding their horses when he wasnt absolutely 100% committed to it. Thought it said a lot about his character. Overall impression i got is that while he was a fine rider and loves horses, he never had the passion for race riding that others had and maybe doubted his own ability on occasion. Maybe too much a bit of a "thinker". Dont mean that in a bad way, just maybe in a sport like that, it helps if you don't question or analyse what you do too deeply. Feeling i took from it anyway.