Tell us about your introduction to the industry.

I suppose my father used to go racing a lot, and I was dragged along with him. We went to a lot of different race meetings.

For the last few years I’m after dabbling into the bloodstock industry and I keep a broodmare at home myself now. It is quite tough and an education in itself.

We always had a few sport horses at home as well so I grew up with it.

Where did you find Mozzies Sister? I see Ciaran Fennelly got her for a good price at the July store sale in 2022.

We heard about her from a gentleman in Cork that knew we were looking for a horse at the time.

So, myself and another syndicate member, Liam, and young Declan Queally, went up and looked at her at Ciaran’s, and we liked what we saw.

We saw the video of her previous point-to-point where she was brought down in February ‘23 and it showed a bit of promise. Everything Ciaran had said about her was spot on.

How was the syndicate formed?

It’s a bunch of like-minded fellas that might have had connections through GAA and some connections in the horse industry. 80% of our syndicate would be lads that come from farming.

We’re just a bunch of lads that get on and enjoy a day out I suppose. We set up the syndicate in September ‘18. We’ve had ups and downs but we’re lucky to have the mare now. We’re very happy with her.

Did you have a few horses before Mozzie then?

We leased our first mare who was in training with Willie Mullins but we had no real success with her. We bought a flat-bred horse then, and he was with John Kiely. He won his maiden at Limerick with Colin Keane on board. Mozzie is our third horse so I suppose you could call it third time lucky!

Things went well with John but Declan (Queally) is local to us and a neighbour of a few in the syndicate as well.

Are the blue and white silks linked to the Waterford jersey?

We actually joke about this a bit, because there’s four or five of us in the syndicate from a club called the Geraldines, and we’re actually blue and white.

So I cod with the lads that they’re actually Geraldines colours, but we’re all big Waterford and GAA supporters. So yeah, they’d be the Déise colours.

She’s been so consistent, second to Familiar Dreams is great form.

Yeah, she ran a cracking race and we were delighted with her to get blacktype as well. She gives you everything and she’s improving, growing and strengthening since we bought her. She’s honest and she sees it out to the line. All of the team at Declan’s are doing great work with her.

The plan now is to go to Gowran in October for the Listed Mucklemeg bumper and then we’ll go hurdling.

Were you confident going into the race at Down Royal?

You’ll always be nervous before a race, everything has to work out and the animal has to turn up on the day. I suppose with her form, you’d have to be confident.

The ground wasn’t ideal, it was drying all the time up to that day. We gave 10lb and there were some good mares in the race. So far with Mozzie, you’d have to be confident.

She likes to go forward in her races, is this a tactic you’d discuss with Declan?

As a syndicate of 10 people, we leave the training up to the trainer. You couldn’t have that many people interfering with the trainer.

She’s very versatile, even ground-wise. We kind of knew that Love At Sea would make the running so it was an ideal race for her the way it panned out.

Will you keep her as a broodmare when she’s finished racing?

We haven’t discussed it but I always tell the lads that I have it in the small print that she’s coming back to me when she’s finished.

She’s really nice in that sense and nearly all of her half-siblings have won since we acquired her. Her dam is definitely producing them. We’ll take it day by day.

Is sharing your experience with a group of friends one of the highlights of being in a syndicate?

We have a great bunch of lads that get on exceptionally well with one another. We’re very easy going in running the syndicate.

Billy (O’Halloran) looks after the financial side of things and he’s meticulous. He’s excellent, we just roll along. We often organize a bus to the races and we enjoy ourselves.

The beauty of the syndicate is between friends and family of the syndicate we get a great following. Especially when you have a good horse, she gets great support and we have great banter.

There’s nothing like a day’s racing, it’s brilliant. Since we started this, we’ve just grown, we’re looking forward to the next day already. There are some lads in the syndicate that would have more involvement with horses than others, some would have had very little involvement prior to setting up the syndicate, it’s an education for all of us.

It’s been an absolutely brilliant journey so far. The name of the syndicate sums it up!

Would you have any advice for someone wanting to get involved? You mentioned earlier that leasing is a good way to start.

Firstly, I’d say you need to talk to someone in the game, and find out the pros and cons of it. A syndicate probably makes it more affordable, anyone can get involved in my eyes.

Once you get a good bunch around you, or someone well organized in the syndicate that knows the run of racing and the run of things, it’s possible for anybody to get involved.

If your heart wants you to go racing, it’s possible. That’s the way I’d look at it. You have leasing if buying isn’t an option at the time and that has plenty of pluses too.