Remarkable trainer Mulhall unearthed a string of gems from his small Oak House Stables base next to Knavesmire

WHEN you consider the largest string he ever had was only around 35 horses, what Joe Mulhall, who died this week aged 80, achieved as a trainer was nothing short of remarkable.

From his Oak House Stables, in Dringhouses, the Irishman handled nearly 500 winners over three decades of training.

He and his horses were a familiar sight to York residents as they were worked on a gallops cut out on Knavesmire, on the outer edge of the rails at York Racecourse.

And since news of his passing, at St Leonard’s Hospice on Saturday, was announced, tributes have been pouring in for a man with a reputation for honesty and infectious enthusiasm.

Born in 1933 in Malahide, County Dublin, Mulhall came from a hunting family and was on horseback at a young age.

A pupil at Malahide Grammar School, he was later apprenticed to Charlie Rogers at The Curragh and rode both on the Flat and jumps.

He met his wife to be, Anne, at a race meeting in Ireland and, when he came over to England to further his career, she followed four months later.

Granted a training licence in 1959, he moved to York two years later and took over Oak House Stables in the mid-1960s.

“He wanted to train and he lived in York,” said Anne. “He approached the racecourse because they (stables) belonged to them and they sold them to him.

“It was Lord Halifax who allowed it. He had to have permission to work his horses on Knavesmire. He’d have been locked up if he didn’t!”

He may not have had huge numbers to work with, but success still followed and, to his delight, Mulhall had his first winner at his home track in May 1968 when First Phase cantered to a six-length victory in the Flying Dutchman Handicap.

First Phase would turn out to be a torchbearer for the Oak House yard. The same week he won at York, he would go on to be victorious in the Usher-Vaux Brewery Gold Tankard at Ayr after Mulhall had boldy predicted he would scoop the big pot.

It brought prize money of £1,842 and would be Mulhall’s biggest success on the track. First Phase won five of his 13 races that year.

‘Phase’, as he was known in the yard, was already six by that point but was a useful horse that would, in total, win 11 races.

Whoever followed had a fair bit to live up to but, as the years progressed, Anton Lad soon came along to replace him.

A winner of two races at Wolverhampton and Hamilton in 1973, he would taste glory in four more races the following year and romped home in Redcar’s Northern Sprint Handicap the following season.

A creditable third on the undercard on Epsom Derby day and a close-up fourth at York continued to emphasise how much Mulhall was able to get out of limited means.

Nothing could stop him. Not even a flu bug in 1973 that severely curtailed his progress or the rising costs of the late 1970s, which saw prize money fail to follow in a situation many modern day trainers know all too well.

Lindiana, Negative Response and Peter Culter, who would again allow him to taste glory in the winner’s enclosure at York, were among his other creditable runners.

As the Yorkshire Evening Press’ racing correspondent ‘Ebor’, Brian Lumley knew more than most about Mulhall’s skills as a trainer.

A regular visitor to the yard for almost yearly stable features looking at the trainer’s fortunes, Lumley described him as an “ebullient” character.

“He was very much a part of the racing scene in his own comparatively small way,” he said. “He didn’t have many good horses but he made the very best of them and he had a fair number of successes.

“I found him to be a very good man to deal with. He was always honest and straightforward with me. He enjoyed talking about his horses and he always did the best he could for his owners.

“It was a privilege to know him. He has been retired several years but he continued to take an interest in his son, Clive.”

As well as Anne, Mulhall leaves two sons, including Clive, who has taken on his father’s mantle and is a trainer at Scarcroft, near Leeds.

No arrangements for the funeral have yet been made.