Where did your journey in the racing world begin?

I have no horse background at all, or at least I never had growing up. I’m an out and out Dub and I’m big into fishing, I’d be a mad fly fisherman. I have a very good friend, he’s Scottish and he has only two interests, one is fishing and the other one is horses. We bought an event horse between the two of us and we gave it to Liam Cusack’s partner, Jane Tiffin. That was maybe 26 years ago.

I don’t understand horses as such, but I was an athlete, and I did a lot of running. I spent four years in America on a scholarship, and I understand training and fitness, so I’d have a sort of natural bent on training horses.

We’ve been very lucky with the event horses. We’ve had a few nice ones. Jane and myself sold a very nice one to Zara Phillips. With Liam being a National Hunt trainer, it was sort of a natural progression that we started to go from event horses into racing. The first horse I bought was a Toulon mare. I’m in the clothing business with shops around the country, so we called her Diesel Dancer, because we were selling Diesel jeans.

I’ve been buying an odd one, and breeding an odd one, and losing an odd one! And that’s really how I got interested in this. I’ve been very lucky with a few nice horses down through the years. I bred The Dabbler myself and he is a half-brother to Brighterdaysahead’s dam Matnie. I have a mare now, who is a full-sister to The Dabbler and some nice young stock as well. So, I have a mishmash of everything, and just to confuse everything, I throw in a couple of show jumpers as well!

I love horses. It’s lovely to race them and all the rest of it, but just the horses themselves are brilliant. They’re such beautiful animals and they give you everything. They might not be good enough, not every one can be a winner, but they give you everything they have in the tank and you can’t ask for much more than that.

I’ve been involved with Liam and Jane for at least 25 years and I don’t plan on changing that. They’re a lovely couple, they’re straight up, and on top of it all, we’re good pals.

How do you navigate the sales as someone that hasn’t been around horses their whole life?

I rely on Liam, he is very knowledgeable. My knowledge of conformation would leave a lot to be desired. I notice if a horse is toeing in or out or behind in the knee or whatever, but in terms of the finer points, I’d always rely on his advice and counsel. Having the mares now, I’d tend to breed rather than buy at the sales. There’s something about breeding a horse and bringing it along, and then training it, and then winning that’s very satisfying. They all have different characters.

Were you confident in John Storey’s chances at Fairyhouse?

No, I wasn’t confident we’d win. Liam did a good job training him, but there was a big field and he wasn’t really considered in the betting. I thought he’d run into a place if everything went right for us, but everything went very right for us. They went too quick and the ground was heavy, so they found it difficult to get home. We just went at our own pace and our fellow is an out and out stayer. His mother was by Scorpion and his mother’s mother, I think, was some way related to Lough Derg.

The way that the race panned out worked to his advantage, and the jockey, Danny Gilligan, gave him a beautiful ride. He focused, didn’t get excited trying to stay up front. He just crept away, got him to settle, and he jumped lovely. Liam and myself watched the race together, and he was so far back we were going to get into our cars and drive away, but he kept going, and he kept creeping away. He kept passing horses until eventually there was nothing left to pass!

I’m only sorry there wasn’t somebody near us with a camera to take a video of the two of us jumping up and down, roaring and shouting, to a horse at the back of the field! It was delightful.

What’s the next step for John Storey?

I think we’re going to give him a little bit of a holiday, and then we will bring him back and we’ll have him ready to go again in the middle of March. We’re kind of restricted because he’s just a stayer. He’d love a five-mile race, but there’s not too many of them unless you want to go to Czechoslovakia or some place! If we get a trip on nice ground, then happy days. He’s a nice horse, and Danny said that he’ll have no problem jumping fences, so that’s something to look forward to.

Have you recieved any good advice over the years?

I go fishing in Ballinrobe, Co Mayo, and there’s a local trainer down there, Michael Flannery, who I’ve had a horse or two with over the years. We had a horse called Bean Chroi Bhriste who won a few races, but after her win at Sligo, I remember we were walking in to get our glass of champagne, and Mike turned to me, and he said, “Michael enjoy this, because in this game, there’s an awful lot more bad days than there are good,” and it’s so true.

What young stock have you got to look forward to?

I have a very nice five-year-old by Famous Name out of Heather Moth. We haven’t really made up our minds whether we go point-to-pointing with him, or whether we go straight to the track, but I’m really looking forward to him because the family is very, very good. I’ve also got a three-year-old by Famous Name, an Affinisea two-year-old, and a Pillar Coral, all out of the one dam. As my wife tells me, all of my horses are swans until they run, and then they’re all geese!

What’s been your highlight so far?

I had a horse with Liam called Last Time D’Albain, and we just had great fun with him. We were third in the Topham one year, third in the Paddy Power, third in the Fox Hunters’, and we even got into the Grand National, but we were taken out at Becher’s Brook. I loved being at Aintree. I know that Cheltenham is the Olympics, but there is something really special about Aintree.