STATIC Jack and Sir Jack Yeats, two horses both owned by my father, have helped provide me with a dream start to my training career. Although only holding a licence since the beginning of June, I have visited the winners enclosure on two occasions and am steadily building up a nice string.

My family have been involved in horses and racing for as long as I can recall. Pake Holden, my grandad, held a handlers licence and my aunt Monica Hartley assisted him. Later on he had a number of horses in training with Joe Crowley and David O’Brien. My grandmother, Nellie Holden, was an avid breeder of half-bred horses and enjoyed much success in the RDS over the years.

On my mother’s side there was always horses in her family. My uncle Johnny Murphy followed in the footsteps of his grandfather Davie Murphy, by breeding and showing horses. I began riding ponies from about the age of four, mostly hunting and pony clubbing.

We always had a yard of hunters in for the winter months and as the eldest in the family I ended up grooming and preparing everyone else’s horses. I loved this role and developed a great passion for horses.My father also kept broodmares and I prepared the foals and yearlings for the sales. The racehorses we had in training would only come home when either out of training or injured so I didn’t have much experience working with them. I really enjoyed going racing from an early age and attended meetings with my parents who had horses in training mostly with Eoin Doyle, John Hanlon and a few others.

After completing my Leaving Certificate, I studied in WIT and returned to work in the family business, before taking a break to tour Australia on a working holiday visa with my sister Vicky and a few friends for 12 months.

When I was in Australia my parents purchased Coolmeen from John Fogarty, who operated a cross country and event facility. I looked at that business on my return and could see the potential to develop it into a training facility, due to the natural progressive incline and the layout of the farm. We began to work on it and progressively developed it into the facility it is today. I then applied for my licence and completed the necessary steps along the way.

WINNING START

My first winner Static Jack is a five-year-old Heliostatic horse who my parents purchased at the 2014 Land Rover Sales on the advice of Michael Shefflin. I had taken out a handlers licence to prepare him for point-to-pointing and he won at Lisronan on his third attempt, so the timing was perfect as my trainer’s licence came through just as he was ready for the track.

He got me off to a great start winning the bumper in Gowran Park, our local course. My second winner, Sir Jack Yeats, was also purchased at the 2014 Landrover Sales by Edward O’Grady for my dad, so there’s great satisfaction in bringing these horses through the point-to-point field and watching them develop and strengthen.

My yard is located in Ballyhale and I have a three furlong circle gallop and a six furlong hill climb all in woodchip, in addition to a three furlong schooling strip on sand and fibre with hurls and fences all open to the public, along with 50 loose boxes and two walkers. I also have separate boxes for the public in a top yard away from my own barn with washing facilities and use of a walker.

Ray Cody assists me as my head lad and my cousin Daniel Holden rides out most days and travels with me racing. I am training eight horses for my parents at the moment but can accommodate many more once I obtain my full licence. The facility is proving very popular, being used by several local trainers with great success. The most important factor is that horses are staying sound on the gallop and reaching great levels of fitness. I’m blessed to have such a wonderful gallop in beautiful surroundings. The horses seem happy and content in their work environment and this has been transferred to the racecourse.

Ellmarie Holden was in conversation with John O’Riordan