PAT Fahy arrived in to Leopardstown last Saturday to the sounds of Jerry Hannon calling A Wave Of The Sea and Simon Torrens home in the Matheson Handicap Chase.

It wasn’t a good omen he thought to himself. Torrens was set to ride his Drop The Anchor in the Ladbrokes Hurdle later on the card and through basic human psychology the thought entered Fahy’s head that the young rider would hardly ride a big double on a day like this. It wasn’t any bad reflection on Torrens’s ability, but more like a natural reaction. Like the gambler on a roulette wheel who bets on black because he’s seen red come up multiple times in a row.

But you could forgive Fahy for doubting his stars had aligned properly in Dublin. After winning at Listowel, when ridden excellently by Torrens, Drop The Anchor went up to the big Down Royal meeting at the end of October for a Grade B handicap hurdle, and he was just about to launch his challenge in the straight when he was brought down by a faller.

It was a similar scenario for the big Grade A handicap hurdle on Hatton’s Grace Hurdle day at Fairyhouse when the son of Shantou was just working himself into contention in the straight when he was badly hampered.

“I’ve just seen over the years, if you’re unlucky with a horse, you usually stay unlucky,” Fahy says. “How many good horses are out there that we never hear of because they just don’t get any luck?

“I was sickened in the north because I only had one runner in the race, I know J.P. had a few and he won it in the end. It was my one chance though and then you have a trainer with three or four in the race and one of them falls in front of you, you’d think: ‘Janey, am I ever going to get a bit of luck? Why do these things happen?’

“Going into last Saturday his form was there. I was hung up on that and there was no disputing it. My worry was would we get the luck. It didn’t look like he was going to win for a long way, they went a ferocious gallop and he was kind of just hanging in there but once he got a bit of room, he got going. He is a seriously tough horse.”

“It was great to win in Leopardstown, great to do it for J.P. and great for the whole team at home.”

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It’s 40 years since Pat Fahy moved from Athenry to Carlow, and next season it’ll be 30 years since he first took out his training licence. Time is perhaps the greatest test of any trainer and the Galway native has stood it, despite various economic upturns and downturns, owners flying out so fast “you could see the feathers scattered around the yard” and a tragedy that shook him to his core.

He always had an interest in horses growing up and spent time showjumping, but he didn’t come from a racing background as such and had basically given up on a career in the game until he saw an advert in this paper for a position working for Paddy Hughes.

He moved down to the Dolmen county and he wasn’t there six months when he rode his first winner, in the colours of Pat Byrne, who owns a lot of the horses he trains now.

Fahy made his home in Carlow and in 1990, decided to make the move into training.

“I couldn’t believe they gave me a licence,” he reflects. “I was dealing with the stewards of the Turf Club and it was a huge thing for me, to be able to compete in my own little way against the likes of Paddy Mullins, Arthur Moore and Jim Dreaper, I couldn’t believe it.

“I had all the facilities in place so maybe I just had no faith in myself whatsoever but it was a huge privilege to have a trainer’s licence. The first horse I got to train, I won a point-to-point with. The first horse I got to the track, won straight away. Even the first horse I had in a graded race won.

“I had this unbelievable start and I was all the time investing into the yard as a result, borrowing money, building up my facilities, and making the payments on everything, then all of a sudden it all changed around the time that HRI came into effect.

“The enterprise board started giving people grants to pay for their facilities. Put in your lunge ring, your gallops, your stables and we’ll pay for it.

“They didn’t consider the likes of me that had to go and borrow and pay back the bank and build up my place. Then I went for a grant and they said no, no you’re professional. I knew everyone was getting them. Aw stop, it was sad. I couldn’t run a horse. There were 125 horses in a maiden hurdle and you didn’t know when your horse was going to run, you couldn’t train it.

“It didn’t seem to bother the new trainers because they didn’t know any different. It went through a stage of complete chaos. And to anybody who had invested money, it was sad.

“I was told I was getting grant aided so I put in a new walker and worked on the gallop and then all of a sudden I wasn’t getting the grant.

“But that was the way with the equine grant and the enterprise board, if you weren’t in with the right people, you could forget about it.

“I don’t know whether it was because I was from Galway or what but I didn’t get any help from them, despite operating a business that was giving plenty to the local economy.

Crash

“The crash came then and that affected me as much as anybody but do you know something? When we got back after the crash, it came back to normality and we could know when our horses were going to run and you could make a plan.

“I’m still getting back now after a hard, hard time but I’d have little in the racing system. I’ve been hammered by the rule changes from time to time and I wouldn’t rule it out happening again.”

Despite Fahy’s assertions against the system, his small yard has regularly sent out big winners in the last three decades. Nuaffe gave him a first signature win in the 1995 Greenalls Gold Cup at Haydock and just two months later he sent out Butches Boy for a Grade 1 success in the Heineken Gold Cup at Punchestown.

Graded performers were on the regular from then, like the quality mares Dun Belle, Jenniferjo and Mariah Rollins, who secured another top-level success for Fahy in the big two-mile novice chase at Leopardstown on St Stephen’s Day.

Publican was the first horse J.P. bought and left in training with him and that was a privilege for the Galway man. Morning Assembly, owned by Steve Parkin (Clipper Logistics) gave him another Grade 1 success and before that there was Ballybacka Lady who won the 1000 Guineas Trial at Leopardstown.

Undoubtedly times have got tougher for the smaller yards but in Castlegrace Paddy and Drop The Anchor, Fahy has shown again he can continue to box at the highest level.

Castlegrace Paddy won the Fortria Chase at Navan earlier this season \ Healy Racing

“I’m not going to compete with the likes of Willie and Gordon unless I come up with the owners they have, that will buy all the big pointers and French horses. But the competition doesn’t bother me wholly. I wouldn’t fear anyone if I could get my hands on the right horse.

“I get on well with both Willie and Gordon, I’m delighted that it’s them leading the way. I love watching Cheltenham. I love watching Willie’s horses, I love watching Patrick when he’s riding. I’d be a big fan and if I wasn’t training I’d be an even bigger fan.”

After 30 years training, Fahy is content with his lot. He’s always had flat horses and says his best results have come there but feels he is branded as being “only a National Hunt trainer.” Getting into the point-to-point market is an avenue he may explore in time. He started off in point-to-points with great success but it wasn’t the behemoth of a market it is now and sourcing riders he says, is a challenge.

A signature success at a big festival can often bring about new business for trainers but Fahy feels those days are gone for him.

“I wouldn’t hold my breath (over getting a new owner) after last weekend,” he says. “In truth, I don’t want to get owners that just follow headlines. I want to get a few like I have now, that’ll be with you no matter how bad the yard is going.

“I do not want the people that swan in and give you a headache and then destroy you. I’m getting to an age that I just don’t have the time for that. It’s alright saying you’d love to get an owner in who would give us a heap of money to buy a heap of lovely horses but that lad could give you more headaches than life would be worth.

“I’m happy with the team of owners I have now. We get such a kick out of what we’re doing – we’ve come through it together. I have owners that have stood by me going all the way back to the crash when some flew out of the yard so fast, the place was full of feathers. But there are a few that didn’t go and they are the sort of people I want to keep.

“You’d have to be training to realise it – owners that will back you all the way are so important. These are the people that understand horses, that are loyal and that are keeping small yards like mine together. Without them, how many small yards would be gone?

Tough game

“This is a tough, tough game in every aspect. It’s not just a case of going and getting horses and training winners. I’ve trained winners for people that wouldn’t even talk to me now. You train a big winner for somebody and there is no guarantee they’ll stay with you. Other trainers told me that when I started out and I didn’t believe them but I do now.

“We have to do everything ourselves. Natalie (wife) does so many different jobs to cover the sides of training from office work to bandaging to organising races to doing the books. Big yards would have two or three people in to do that. I’m out on the gallops all the time trying to keep it right.

“If you don’t have the gallop, you can’t expect to get results. But try and keep a gallop right, the cost of it. Say you win a race at Thurles there on Thursday. It’s around €6,000-€6,500 to the winner and 7% of that is €420-€450. One load of woodchip on your gallop that will go 25 yards costs €1,200 plus VAT.

“Imagine then having to pay someone with machinery to come in and do it for you. It’s not feasible, you have to do it yourself.”

The vindication for Fahy is the winner, the good horse and the big day, just like last Saturday when he was in the mere 33% of trainers other than Willie Mullins to achieve success at the Dublin Racing Festival.

“Those wins will keep you at it,” he says. “When the lull comes between no winner and very little happening and everybody is working flat out, that’s when you start beginning to doubt what you’re doing. When you get the winner, it gives you heart.

“You’d see a horse there that’s wrong, and you’d say you have to get him right and then when you get the result, it gives you more heart. That’s what it’s all about. There could be a horse here that nobody even knows about yet because things haven’t gone right for him but you put everything into getting him right.

“I keep owners informed all along the way and they get a massive kick, because they’ve gone through everything with the injury as well, seen the good days and the bad days and they’re so much a part of it. That’s what keeps it going.”

Thankfully there are a few horses in Fahy’s yard providing that tonic. There is a pointer ready to run and he says he could be the best horse he’s ever had. He has high hopes for History Of Fashion, who won a point earlier this season and runs today at Naas.

Castlegrace Paddy goes for the Red Mills Chase at Gowran Park next week on a day part dedicated to Ronan Lawlor, for whom it’s 11 years since his tragic death on Fahy’s gallops. It goes without saying that Lawlor is always in Fahy’s thoughts and he’d love to win on the day.

Drop The Anchor could be for Cheltenham but soft ground is important for him. He’ll get a County Hurdle entry and the prospect of a big field, fast pace and tough finish up the hill is very attractive.

Drop The Anchor and Simon Torrens jumping the last at Leopardstown last week \Healy Racing

J.P. has also won that race twice with two Carlow-based trainers. The omens are good.

Pat Fahy with the trophy for the Ladbrokes Hurdle \ Healy Racing