THERE is a subtle difference between having dreams and being a dreamer. Eoghan O’Neill is the most pragmatic of individuals, seeing his training establishment first and foremost as a business concern that must pay its way.

That is not to say he doesn’t have aspirations of proving his abilities not just in improving horses, but handling precocious ones and winning elite prizes with them. So walking into the winners’ enclosure at Royal Ascot after Suits You claimed the Cheshire Stakes last week left the Kildare man buzzing.

“It was fantastic,” recalled the 45-year-old this week over the phone from France, where he has been based since 2008. “You don’t get too many bites of the cherry. Certainly a fella of my calibre doesn’t.

“He’s a very smart colt. I knew he’d get seven furlongs. When you know they’ll get seven at that stage of their lives, as two-year-olds, you’ve got to have a chance in a race like that.

“It will be interesting to see where we go now. I don’t get too carried away. We’ll sit back and have a think about it before we see what we are going to do. He’s worthy of going up to group company now after winning a listed race. He beat a good field so we’ll see what’s best for him and for us.”

It has been some journey to this point for O’Neill. Although there were always a few mares and foals around the family farm in Celbridge, a career in racing didn’t materialise as an ambition for some time.

He got a degree in economics and psychology at St Patrick’s College in Maynooth and followed that up with a degree from the Smurfit Business School in UCD. By his own admission, he was more qualified to be a bank manager than a racehorse trainer.

Mind you, there are many former trainers who would probably wish that they had better business heads. They might still hold a licence had that been the case.

Ironically, it was only as he was chasing his business qualifications in Maynooth that the idea of pursuing a life in racing began to germinate in O’Neill’s mind.

“When I was in university, I used to ride out every summer in France for a guy called Robert Collet. After I left UCD, there was a job in the paper; Sir Mark Prescott was looking for an assistant trainer. I applied for that and got it.

“I had the experience of doing that with him and then I went on to work with John Gosden for four years. That’s where it’s evolved from without it being a childhood dream.”

He recognises his fortune in learning from two tremendous handlers at the epicentre of English flat racing in Newmarket. Gosden won the Derby with Benny The Dip during O’Neill’s tenure as assistant at Clarehaven, while Shantou was victorious in the St Leger.

His former boss bagged his second Derby winner with Golden Horn just a few weeks ago and has established himself as the leading trainer in Britain in recent years. O’Neill is not surprised, putting a lot of that success down to patience. Of course now, Gosden is operating at a level where his owners can afford to give him time.

“When you’re dealing with a fella who can’t really afford it - he’s not a multi-millionaire - he’s always in a rush because he’s paying out money like he’s paying out school fees, day-in, day-out and not seeing any results. When you’ve got owners that can afford to be patient, that makes life easier.”

In 2000, he decided that the time had come to paddle his own canoe. For eight years, there was a large degree of success, the last four operating out of a premises owned by businessman, John Fretwell. He trained horses for Fretwell too and the business model was the same as the one he operates now. Buy horses, sell them for a profit. Make money.

The horizons were broad from the start. Yorba Linda won a listed contest in Dusseldorf quickly after he took out his own licence. The following season, he returned to his native county to record his first group success with Red Rioja in the CL Weld Stakes at the Curragh.

In the intervening years, there have been many group victories from the likes of Always Hopeful, Silent Times and Maranilla. Vital Equine won the Champagne Stakes in York before finishing second to Cockney Rebel in the 2000 Guineas eight years ago. In 2008, however, he came to a fork in the road.

“People probably don’t know this but I wasn’t a private trainer for John Fretwell. I trained horses for him but I was an independent guy. Sure, I rented his property off him but that’s kind of where it starts and where it finished.”

Rising rents made it impossible to continue that business model so hence the move to France.

TRADING UP

“In an ideal world I would have bought a property in England but the whole prize-money issue was very much on my mind at the time. My wife Melissa and I felt that because property was a bit cheaper out in France, maybe we could operate there. The main priority was that we would own our own property. So we bought this place here and we gave it a shot.”

“Here” is Haras de Lianger, a 120-acre farm he bought in Normandy. It was a massive decision to relocate to a different country with four young children.

“Luke was eight, Alice was seven, Sophie was five and Annabel was three. They adjusted quite quickly. If anything it was myself and my wife that took a little time to adjust to French life.

“When I came to France first I had three very good seasons and I had one of the better two-year-olds in France that year (Broox). He won four times. He won a Group 2, was second in a Group 2 and third in a Group 1. He was a smart horse.

“In fairness, 2013 and 2014 were quiet because I just didn’t have any quality. It was as simple as that. I just didn’t have any decent horses. When you only have the numbers that I operate with, things can get very quiet when you haven’t got quality.

“I’m primarily working with two-year-olds so you nearly know your fate by February what the story is going to be, how the season is going to finish up. Luckily we have a good bunch this year.

“It’s a fashion-orientated business and when things go quiet, you get forgotten about very quickly. So the reality was I had to go out and buy all my own yearlings myself last autumn. But I always have a kind of clientele that after they’ve sold their two-year-old or their three-year-old, they’ll always get involved again. So while I’m buying them myself and paying for them myself, I get them sold as time goes on.”

Suits You should raise the profile once more but again, the expediency shines through.

“I hope it will attract some big owners that are realistic about owning horses and understand the pitfalls of potentially shoving their money down the jacks. Because that’s often what it’s like....so I try to deal with like-minded people who understand the game. We’d sell a lot of horses too so I have a tendency to want people like that, who will not be in dreamland about horses, because often it’s very hard to work with people like that.

“They all get beaten. The only one that did not got beaten is Frankel. All the others get beaten one day. The way I am, we can buy a yearling that suits you for 12 grand and if we can sell him for a good profit, it’s job done and best of luck to the next fella.

“We buy precocious horses and if they turn out to be good, there’s plenty fellas there that will pay you for them. If they don’t turn out to be good, they’re useless because they’re precocious and if they’re not good at two, they’ll never be good. So you draw a line through them.

“My father always said to me that the only way to make money out of horses was trading them and there’s a lot to be said for that.”

AMBITIONS

Don’t mistake having a healthy sense of matter-of-factness with lack of ambition though. Having come close to classic success and knowing the thrill of major wins from listed up to Group 2, O’Neill would love to repeat that and do better.

It just isn’t the priority though because he recognises how difficult it is for him to attain without a significant level of investment. Indeed, he uses Vital Equine as a cautionary tale and evidence of the benefits of common sense.

“When he was a two-year-old he won a Group 2 and was one of the best in England that year. The owner was offered a lot of money for him as a two-year-old but I said I thought he’d be better at three. We ran him in the Guineas first time out and he finished second and he should have sold him then, because he got offered fortunes for him. He decided he wouldn’t then and the wheels came off. So there’s always a time to sell. That’s a skill.

“Of course you want to win Group 1s but there’s only so many Group 1s every year. So you have to be realistic as well. You can’t be going off in dreamland hoping you’re going to win the Derby every year because there’ll only be one winner.”

He has 40 horses at the moment, the vast majority of them two-year-olds and has not regretted moving to France for a second.

He concedes to missing Ireland and England and would return to England if property prices weren’t so prohibitive and prize-money improved. Right now though, France is the place to be.

Suits You, sir.