THE South Kilkenny-based One For Luck Syndicate, owners of Cheltenham specialist Put The Kettle On, are counting down the days to Cheltenham and hoping that nothing stops their progressive mare from making the journey to the Cotswolds for a crack at the Grade 1 Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase.

Mary Dermody, together with her two sons John and Michael, and busy suckler and sheep farmer Keith Phelan from Ballyhale, make up the syndicate. She said: “With things the way they are, it’s something to look forward to and Aidan Coleman, who has won on her three times in Cheltenham, has been booked to ride her again.”

The members of the syndicate are a modest bunch but they have had plenty to celebrate so far with their trainer Henry de Bromhead who also had care of another mare for them in four-time winner Adreamstillalive. She gave them their first success at their local track of Tramore on New Year’s Day 2017 and was really tough and “had great go in her”. She would have made a good chaser had she stayed sound.

She made “a holy show of herself” on her debut when bucking all the way from the parade ring down to the start at Gowran Park under David Mullins on Thyestes day but still managed to win her race by a comfortable margin.

Bit of go

Put The Kettle On was equally fiery when Henry and his wife Heather picked her out in the sales ring at Goffs. Mary explained: “I like one with a bit of go in them and she showed a bit of spirit at Goffs where she was difficult to manage. That was at the Land Rover Sale where Henry bought Adreamstillalive as a three-year-old and we had a budget of €20,000.

“We thought a couple more hundred wouldn’t break us and told him to go another bit before we bought this one for €22,000. She’s by Stowaway and was bred locally 15 miles up the road by Gerry Purcell in Gowran. There were a couple of good winners in the pedigree and now we’ve done our bit to help it along.”

Put The Kettle On went straight from Goffs to de Bromhead’s former amateur Paul Power to be broken and pre-trained in Co Waterford. Said Mary: “She wasn’t easy but he never complained and did a good job in getting her settled.”

The seven-year-old got her name from a saying Mary’s late husband Jim was fond of using. His wife remembers: “When people came to the farm, he liked to ask them to come in and would say to either me or our daughter Helen: ‘Put the kettle on and make the tea.’ I like getting the tea and drinking it but not just anyone can make it!”

Nickname

Surprisingly the mare isn’t known as Polly in Henry’s yard, as in the nursery rhyme, but Kettle. Mary revealed: “Someone overheard two of the lads talking about which horses they were going to be riding on the gallop that morning. One of them said: ‘Put The Kettle On,” to which the other lad replied: “You’re not long after getting your breakfast – surely you had tea before you came here!”

Laughs all round but the name has stuck. However, with all her achievements to date, no-one could ever accuse ‘the pot of calling the kettle black.’ The 155-rated mare has taken the syndicate from Downpatrick and Kilbeggan to Cheltenham three times and lately to Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting where she was a respectable third to Chacun Poir Soi and Notebook in the Grade 1 Paddy’s Rewards Club Chase.

Cheltenham trip

Mary, her two sons, daughter and brother-in-law Owen Dermody, a well-known bookmaker who had shares in horses with Pat Flynn, notably Sweet Charmer, always enjoyed their annual trips to Cheltenham. They were over the moon when de Bromhead, who always believed Put The Kettle On’s future lay over fences – he didn’t delay too long before sending her chasing – called them one day to ask if they wanted to send the mare over to Cheltenham for the Arkle trial at the November meeting in 2019 which she won.

“He said she was entitled to be there and if she won that he’d get her ready to go back there for March and she’d go there fresh.

“We couldn’t believe our luck to win the Arkle in March – it was unbelievable. It was a big opportunity for us and we all went over.” The mare followed up last November at Cheltenham with victory in the Shloer Chase.

Mares’ chase

There had been speculation this season about whether Put The Kettle On would be aimed at the new mares’ chase at Cheltenham or kept to two miles but her trainer confirmed in early January that the Grade 1 Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase is her target, saying: “That’s the plan at the moment.”

As Mary said: “Horses for courses. Henry likes the Champion Chase and the mare likes Cheltenham and the hill. Henry said it would suit her better and he’s always right. He said you like a bit of sport and she’s improved with every run.”

She and her late husband farmed 150 acres mid-way between Ballyhale and Mullinavat and syndicate member Keith Phelan, who does a lot of A.I. work for Progressive Genetics in the area, milks the 55-strong dairy herd.

Beef calves

Mary and Helen, a secondary school teacher in De La Salle College in Waterford, look after the calves which are reared for beef. Helen was too young to qualify for membership of the syndicate when it was formed by her uncle Fr Tom Dermody, a priest in California who is “mad into racing” according to Mary, while he was home on holidays for the Galway races one year.

However, she is a great supporter and likes nothing better than a day at the races, particularly Galway. It was Fr Tom’s idea to put the syndicate together and John, who was introduced to riding ponies by another uncle before he went to college where he qualified as a teacher, needed little persuasion.

His brother Michael, a chemical engineer in Galway by profession who spends a lot of his time in San Francisco, was hot on his heels and Keith Phelan qualified on the grounds that he “likes a good gamble”.

So, they have plenty of enthusiasm between them but breeding from the two good mares they have had the good fortune to own is not on the cards. A shortage of land isn’t a factor but Mary’s Connemara ponies certainly are.

She explained: “Adreamstillalive was by Flemensfirth and she won four races for us on the trot, despite breaking down twice. I sold her privately to Dr Richard Newland for breeding, so I can still follow the winners in the family.

Connemara ponies

“I like going up to Clifden for the Connemara pony show and sales and breed off some of the Connemara ponies that I keep here for an interest. I have six of them and Helen gives me a hand feeding them; they wouldn’t walk over you too much but I wouldn’t be able to manage the thoroughbred mares with John not here all the time.

“They’re too valuable and I’d be afraid they’d get a cut or something else. You need someone looking after them the whole time and that’s why they stay with Henry and Heather when they’re on a break. We like to buy fillies rather than geldings to race and have some sport with them because, at least if they damage their tendons, you can still sell them for breeding.”

The One For Luck Syndicate is hoping that their good run of success continues with another mare they have in the de Bromhead stable called An Taibhse who was bought at the Goffs Land Rover Sale last August. She had her second outing in a mares’ maiden hurdle at Fairyhouse in January and was placed third to Queen Jesse Jay.

Flutter

Mary likes to have a flutter and is usually glued to the television at home with a mug of Barry’s tea beside. She said: “There’s a difference in the taste of Barry’s and other brands – it’s lovely and I always have a couple of mouthfuls at a time.”

However, it will be champagne the syndicate will be favouring should Put The Kettle On come up trumps for them at Cheltenham. It’ll be a case of Pop The Cork Mary then and why not?

They’re not counting their chickens just yet about the possibility of being there to see the mare in action but agree: “We take it one day at a time and it’s great that racing is still going on here. It’s just doubtful if supporters will be able to go to Cheltenham but I doubt they’ll stop the horses going over. It would be lovely if we could all go but we’ll settle for it just being the horses.”?