Even by his standards, this was extraordinary. You think you have seen it all with Willie Mullins and then, like a magician delving into a top hat, he conjures Aintree’s most remarkable masterpiece.

Mullins had won the Randox Grand National twice previously, so Nick Rockett wasn’t breaking new ground. But what this teak-tough gelding did was lead home a posse of his stablemates, whose staying power enabled us to say this was the great race’s greatest training performance.

Here was a story that seemed almost fictional. Mullins saw his son, Patrick, guide 33/1 shot Nick Rockett home and such was his paternal pride, a man who usually keeps his emotions in check wept in the winner’s enclosure, walking away from two interviews as his voice cracked.

Still there was more: Meetingofthewaters, another from the Closutton cavalry, was fifth; Minella Cocooner was seventh. Only fourth-placed Iroko, the 13/2 favourite trained in Cheshire by Oliver Greenall and Josh Guerriero, and Henry de Bromhead’s Senior Chief (sixth) stopped a clean sweep.

To give this achievement context, it was comparable with the day Frankie Dettori went through the card with seven winners at Ascot in September 1996. Quite simply, you might never see the like of it again.

Amateur jockey Patrick Mullins won the Grand National with 33-1 shot Nick Rockett

Nick Rockett finished two and a half lengths clear of the defending champion I Am Maximus

‘I don’t know how we can better this,’ said Mullins, who got back on an even keel thanks to a couple of glasses of restorative red wine. ‘That is the achievement of a lifetime. When I saw Patrick get alongside the rail on the run-in, I just lost it.’

Some will wonder what the fuss is about, given that Mullins has farmed big races for the past decade on a regular basis but this narrative was crammed full of romance and poignancy, it wasn’t simply jump racing’s most powerful yard steamrollering everything in its wake.

For starters, there is the story of how Nick Rockett came to be trained in Closutton for Stewart Andrew; his wife, Sadie, made her Holy Communion with Mullins six decades ago; they bumped into each other at Cheltenham a few years ago and talked over old times.

At the end of the conversation, Sadie mused: “I wonder if you might buy my husband a horse?”; Mullins did as he was asked but before she really got to see the gelding develop, Sadie succumbed to cancer in December 2022. Her name remains alongside Stewart’s on the racecard.

‘This is a class horse and he’s got the heart of a lion,’ the jubilant owner said, pride bursting out of every word. ‘I can’t tell you what it’s like from a personal point of view. Sadie would have loved that. She’s up there and she’ll have had a tenner each-way on him, I can guarantee.’

Quite why he was allowed to go off at such huge odds, having won two big trials in Ireland during the winter, was a mystery to Mullins; yes, he expected I Am Maximus to run well and the confidence was well-placed as Paul Townend moved his mount ominously into the straight.

It had been a helter-skelter race, one in which the well-fancied Perceval Legallois departed at Valentine’s Brook on the first circuit, and there was a moment when it appeared there would be a grave footnote when Broadway Boy, who had led the field, turned head over heels.

Thankfully, after lengthy treatment, the gelding was able to walk on to a horse ambulance and be taken for further assessment; the same was also true for Celebre D’Allen, the oldest of the 34 competitors, who condition gave cause for concern after he was pulled up sharply.

Mullins’ finest hour saw him wrap up a 1-2-3 clean sweep for his father, legendary trainer Willie

Darkness stalks the Grand National, that can never be forgotten, but this is also the race in which the most incredible things happen and that is precisely what Mullins senior saw, as he peered through his binoculars and had his eyes on only one of six contenders – Nick Rockett.

‘I wondered who I should follow but it was an easy decision,’ the reigning British champion explained. ‘I wanted to follow Patrick but had nothing to do with a trainer looking out for his jockey. It was a father looking out for his son. It was that simple.’

These men have shared much together. Patrick, who has never turned professional because he wakes up at 11st 7lbs every day and is too heavy for the daily racing grind, partnered his Dad’s 100th Cheltenham winner last March and has had more than 800 victories in his stellar career.

Late last autumn, he became a Dad for the first time but there was a little that the arrival of his daughter, Wynter, did not leave Willie as emotional as he was on this seismic afternoon in Liverpool, where a crowd of 59,920 took every vantage point.

Willie Mullins was overcome with emotion after his breathtaking afternoon at Aintree

When they were eventually united in the parade ring – Patrick was given a piggyback in from the course by Stewart Andrew, as Nick Rockett was given chance to cool down and doused in water – Willie wrapped his son in a hug and simply said “wow” repeatedly.

‘If I had written this myself, I couldn’t have written it any better,’ said Patrick. ‘My Dad is 69 but he isn’t 69, if you know what I mean? He doesn’t want to stop. He just wants to keep making things bigger and better and he wants to win more and more.

‘It was a pity I couldn’t ride the horse back in but he is absolutely fine. When I look back, I have had an incredible year. But you know what? When you ride for Willie Mullins, you know anything is possible.’