Neil Mulholland

Born 27th October 1980 I was brought up surrounded by a family that loved horses. My father Brian was not a Trainer but he always had a horse in training, while at home he loved to breed with his own mares to try and find that big race winner we are all looking for. I was very lucky to have a pony from my first memories, it was in my blood.

At the age of 11 years old I started to ride out for Ian Duncan who was my local trainer based just a couple of miles away. At the age of 12 years old I wrote a secret letter to Aidan O’Brien who at the time was champion jumps trainer to ask him for some work experience. To my surprise he replied and I spent 6 years in total with him, the first 3 years part time when I was at school, the last 3 years full time to do my apprenticeship. I enjoyed every minute at Aidan’s and learned so much. It was there that I started my riding career and went on to ride about 120 winners, riding for a lot of great trainers on a lot of nice horses.

I was a journeyman jockey so I had to work hard and ride for as many trainers as possible which meant I got to see a lot of different ways people train. In 2008 I first took out my trainer’s licence, training 17 winners in my first season which was brilliant. Last season (2015/2016) I trained 72 winners jumps and flat, but anyone that knows me well will know that I always want to do better. This year we are on course to have our best season to date which is fantastic and hopefully we will just keep on improving. The highlight of recent seasons would have to be The Druid's Nephew winning The Ultima Business Solutions Handicap Steeple Chase on Tuesday 10th March at the 2015 Cheltenham Festival.

In August 2009 I got married to my long term girlfriend Becky and in May 2012 we had our first child Patrick. In June 2012 we moved to Conkwell Grange racing Stables which is now our home and heaven to many racehorses. Our second son, Connor was born in October 2015 and we are very happy and relaxed in our home on the yard. Thankfully the number of horses and winners have been getting better year on year.

I try to keep on improving the facilities when and where I can. As I’m sure you are all aware, at Conkwell we give attention to detail to each and every racehorse but I need a good team to help me to reach each horse’s potential, so please have a look at the staff page to see the backbone of Neil Mulholland Racing.