IF you’re a punter who places a big emphasis on trainer form, you’re tracking John McConnell at this time of the year. Seven wins in the last two weeks, including a hat-trick at Downpatrick last Sunday should be the trigger.
Last year the Stamullen, Co Meath-based trainer sent out 30 winners, on the flat and over jumps collectively, from August to November inclusive. This is his time of year.
Why this is the case, he isn’t sure. He suggests that it is maybe because he is a dual-purpose trainer and this period of the year, when the end of the flat season intersects with the beginning of the jumps season, suits his horses.
In any case, on a macro level, McConnell is a trainer on an upward trajectory. Over the last three years, he has gained a foothold by sending out double-figure winners in both codes, most notably 33 winners on the level last season.
What has happened to make this happen?
“A few things I think,” the trainer replies. “We’ve got some very good owners that have put money into horses in the last few years. It goes without saying that that makes a significant difference.
“I have a particularly good bunch of young staff that have all come through at the same time, the likes of Siobhan Rutledge, Ben Harvey and Alex Harvey - young people who are very talented. We also have the likes of Thomas Reilly and Dylan Browne, who’ve been here for a few years, so I think I’ve got the best staff I’ve ever had.
“And then we’re probably just training a bit better than we were as well. I’m learning all the time.”
That last reason is perhaps most significant. McConnell had options to go to Newmarket and become an assistant trainer at a couple of big yards, but it never felt right. A qualified vet, he was working in Monaghan, where he also held a position working for the department of agriculture in Northern Ireland, when he was first approached to train a horse.
So in a unique way, the horses came to him rather than the other way around, but he always had it in his head that he’d like to go training, having been brought up around horses at his Kildare home and subsequently spent two summers working for neighbour Michael O’Brien.
“I just got the bug for it,” McConnell explains. “I was always going to be too heavy to be a jockey so naturally, training was the thing I wanted to do. I was working up in Monaghan and the man that supplied the feed for the horses asked me to train one for him and it developed slowly from there. It was for those owners, Pat and Moira Gilsenan, that I had my first winner, Grand Lili in a novice hurdle at Bellewstown in June 2005.
“Hours-wise, I had a flexible job, so I could train in my spare time – I think we had about seven or eight horses up there at the time. We trained the winner of the December juvenile hurdle at Fairyhouse in 2006, Sophist. It kind of grew a bit from there and it got to the point where I wasn’t able to do both jobs so I decided to have a go at it in 2008. I said at the time that it’s better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a lamb.
“But I went to the Curragh and couldn’t have gone at a worse time in terms of the boom bursting. It was a very difficult time, not only for me, but for every trainer. Luckily I knew a guy called Mark Kavanagh and his family owned the place I’m in now in Stamullen and they offered me a position to come up.
“Mark is kind of the business part of the whole situation and I just concentrate on the training so it works really well.”
It was in McConnell’s stable form sweet spot period last year that he elevated his training achievements to a new level and provided a case and point for where he’s at now.
He sent out his first Group 3 winner when A Case Of You stormed home to win the Anglesey Stakes at the Curragh, while at the same time training Make Good to progress sharply, winning twice over hurdles before a Grade 2 success at Cheltenham in December.
“That was massive,” he says now. “I’ve always said that I get pleasure out of any winner at any level but a graded winner is a big thing because they give you so much coverage and exposure compared to a normal winner. The fact that it was in both codes, one at the Curragh and one at Cheltenham was massive, I’m sure it benefitted us in terms of boosting numbers. The challenge now, as a small fish in a big pond, is to replicate it but that’s what we’re aiming for.
“Those wins are big because it’s about showing people that you can do it, potential owners and current owners. I’ve always had the belief in myself but you’ve got to go and show it to other people.
“It’s a huge thing to do in Ireland. I remember I met David O’Meara in Goffs one year just after he burst onto the scene and I asked him what his secret was and he just said to me, train in England. I thought that was a good answer!
“My expectations are realistic, I know that I’m not going to be able to go toe to toe with Ballydoyle or Closutton so once you set your bar at the level it should be, I think Ireland is a great place to train, I wouldn’t want to train anywhere else. I might have more winners somewhere else but it’s hard to beat training in one of the strongest jurisdictions in the world. We’ve shown now we can train a good horse and win.”
Unique
McConnell is now up to 75 horses, a number which has gradually increased each year for the last decade. He says that he’d still love to take on more, that the system in Rockview Stables is unique one that easily allows for more horses to come in and match up with the right partners in morning routines. His staff are young, with average age around 22 or 23, and he says there is hunger about the place, a real positive atmosphere.
Integral to success at the yard has been New York-based owners Derek Kierans and Caroline Ahearn, a couple from Drogheda, who own a significant amount of McConnell’s map-plotters like the remarkable servant and 12-time winner Go Another One, six-time winner Streets Of Doyen and Punchestown Festival scorer Pearl Of The West.
In a piece for this paper in 2019, Kierans was highly complimentary of the communication skills of McConnell, saying: “I’ve had the experience with owning horses in the bigger yards and it really isn’t for me. You put a lot of money into it and in turn you want to be treated with courtesy. “Communication was always key for me, simply having a trainer who will call you and let you know what is going on and what the plans are
“I guess it’s like a food chain. If you go to one of the big trainers, you won’t get the same attention as you would with a smaller trainer. I’ve a great relationship with John, and I’d rather lose with him than win with one of those bigger yards.”
Quite a reference.
“Yea, absolutely. With Derek there’s probably been times where my relationship with him has probably kept us going rather than my results,” McConnell reflects. “Thankfully we’re going well now. With every owner communication is important, especially in the modern age, it’s absolutely vital.
“It’s funny, when I worked as a vet, I probably got more thank yous and plaudits from people that owned animals that passed away than from animals that I saved and I think that was down to how I handled it in communication. So how you handle communication with owners is very important.
“I’m very active on WhatsApp, I leave a lot of voice notes for people – that came out through Covid actually. It’s very handy, it saves you time texting and it’s a bit more personal as well. I don’t have a secretary or anything but I try to take as many calls as I can and if I miss a call, I’ll definitely return it.
“I do spend a lot of my evenings on the phone to various owners but I enjoy it now. There’s probably a time when I didn’t enjoy it but I do now on the whole.
“I think if you’re honest with people, that even if there’s a disaster, the majority of them will stay with you because they trust you. That’s the most important thing bar results, trust.”
Relationships
With good communication and trust built up comes solid relationships and that makes the success all the more sweet. Like on Sunday when Ally Kay won for a family syndicate, “good, down to earth people” that McConnell was delighted to train a winner for.
There is likely to be plenty more winners in the coming weeks and a beneficiary of that could be Siobhan Rutledge. The 22-year-old jockey has gained the backing of McConnell at a time when the general progress of female riders could be at a very important stage.
“I’d put her up on everything if I had the choice because you know you’re going to get 100% and you know it’s going to be 100% genuine and if there’s a mistake, it’s not for the want of trying, and it’s going to be learned from, and it’s going to be felt by her whereas you might not get that all the time with other jockeys,” McConnell says.
“I’ve no problem supporting her and she’s getting a lot of help now from other trainers which is brilliant. I think they’re seeing the same thing and she can only get better I suppose.
“She is part of a really good team at the yard. We’ve an enthusiastic bunch who want to learn and we have some really highly skilled horse people among that bunch. Everybody knows their roles in the yard so it’s a happy place to work which is important.
“Look, we were lucky when racing stopped last year. Most of my owners kept the faith. Obviously we looked after people with regard to fees a little bit but I didn’t lose many owners that way so that was a big help.
“We got back going and it was great that we hit the ground running and it just kept going all through the summer and the autumn.”
And that’s the bread and butter for McConnell. Ask him for a grand ambition in his training career and he won’t really give you one. He’d love to have a Grand National runner, and came so close with the sadly ill-fated Some Neck who missed out by one last year, but other than that, he takes each day as it comes.
“To have the team I have around me and the people that I have employed, that’s an achievement in itself so I’m happy with that,” he says. “I’d like to grow the numbers further and I’d really like to grow the quality as well. Although I get as much kick out of winning with an average horse, as winning with a good one.
“It’s all about delivering for your owners – the happiness and satisfaction that can provide people. That’s one of the biggest kicks I get out of training.
“I just want to keep my head above water and do as good as I can with each horse.”
Dundalk over-balloting
“Certainly leading up to Christmas the situation was leading on ridiculous and I did make a call or two to HRI and Michael Grassick of the Trainers’ Association to throw in my tuppence worth. They did put on more races after Christmas and it definitely did help. We got through it but it was just very frustrating after being locked up with Covid that they didn’t have enough races.
“People can say they don’t want low-grade horses all they want but the fact is the majority of horses are low-grade. I read an article recently that said 60% of horses in Britain are class five or class six, and I’m sure it’s similar over here. That’s the way it is, you can’t bin those horses, they need to be catered for. I know HRI have a tricky situation, finances and lots of other factors come into it, but personally I don’t think people with a lower-grade horse would mind racing for slightly less money if it meant there were more races on.”
Targeting British races less
“Brexit has something to do with it. It’s more complicated and costly to go over. It’s not beyond the possibility to go over but it is more expensive and also, we can’t run in class five or class six races over there still – I think that’s a Covid restriction that is still in place. I used to run a lot of my lower grade horses over there because the races were easier to win but at the minute we can’t do that. I don’t think the British trainers have any desire to let us back in at the moment and I haven’t heard any word of it changing but we’ll be looking to start targeting races over there in the coming months.”