Craic and competition are two hallmarks of the Galway Races, both familiar concepts to Ado McGuinness.

The Lusk-based handler first conquered Ballybrit in 2010, when Beau Michael landed a novice chase under Barry Geraghty and though that stable star won three graded contests over jumps, it’s for the Festival’s flat handicaps that McGuinness has become known in recent years.

The €44,000 horse-in-training purchase Saltonstall landed back-to-back runnings of the valuable Colm Quinn Mile Handicap and stablemate Sirjack Thomas completed the hat-trick in 2021. McGuinness currently has four entered in next week’s renewal worth €70,800.

“My best chance would be No More Porter,” he says. “If it gets soft at all, I think Casanova is a big player. Both of them have been bridesmaids in the race before; Casanova was second in it before, and so was No More Porter.”

Both also hold entries in next Sunday’s €64,900 feature, the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Ahonoora Handicap, which stablemate Current Option will bid to win for a fourth time. They are joined at entry-stage by Elinor Dashwood. “She is a filly that I really like and has been working well. She won a good race in Gowran and ran very well in a good conditions race at Naas a few weeks back. I would say the plan will be to try and go for another pot handicap-wise and then we’ll try to get some blacktype somewhere along the way before she hits the paddocks.”

Reflecting on the challenge that Galway presents, McGuinness notes, “The handicaps are very competitive. Usually, they go very fast and when that happens in any handicap, the best horse usually wins.

“Horses either take to the track or they don’t,” he continues. “I’ve been fortunate enough the last few years, to have found horses who do like it there. Current Option was a Group 3 winner in the past so they’re high-class horses. But then the great thing about Galway is in the smaller handicaps, any trainer can win them. They can showcase a trainer starting off, which it did for me, it was great for me.”

Eyes on the prize

Star Harbour holds an entry on Friday, but McGuinness elected to send him to Yarmouth instead, where he represented Ireland in the Racing League. “It’s nearly the same money but it’s a lot easier win. He’ll take on 13 other horses, because that’s all that’s allowed to run in the Racing League. So, you’re running for eighty grand, whereas if I go to the Curragh for a hundred grand pot, I’d usually take on 25 or 26.”

“It just makes sense, and the caliber of horse wouldn’t be as good as a good premier handicap. They’re not easy won either, you need a nice horse to try and win them. We probably won the guts of a hundred grand out of it last year. It’s a great incentive, that’s for sure.”

Many of the horses mentioned above are owned by longtime owners of McGuinness, and they’re often known for making the most of their celebrations. “The Dooley brothers are addicted to Galway,” Ado says of Casanova, Current Option and No More Porter’s owners.

“They come over and spend eight days in the city, they love the place, love the craic. Last year, I think they brought twenty friends over for the Galway Festival. They had a blast and I think most of them are coming back again this year.”

I comment that owners like them as the lifeline of any trainer and McGuinness agrees. “If you haven’t got the support of owners that are gonna buy some nice horses, it’s a hard game. These guys are very important and loyalty in the game is very important as well. I think every trainer in the country knows what that word means.

“There’s always someone there to take horses if you don’t perform. Several times, trainers can have a bug in the yard, and all of a sudden, they hit bad form, and that’s when the loyalty of owners comes into play.”

McGuinness recently lost 11 horses owned by Shamrock Thoroughbreds when assistant trainer and syndicate manager Stephen Thorne departed. “We were very successful for the last five or six years,” he reflects. “Look, all good things come to an end at some stage. Nobody likes losing horses, and I haven’t met a trainer yet that likes losing them, so I was a bit disappointed. But you know, life goes on. Nobody’s dead, we’ll all survive, and very best of luck to him.”

Quality over quantity

As chairman of the Irish Racehorse Trainers’ Association, McGuinness is well aware of the challenges facing Irish trainers. When quizzed on their biggest hurdle, he quickly replies. “Prize money is a huge factor in the whole game. I know HRI have planned for another 40 meetings but I don’t think we need more racing, I think we need more prize money.

“A small guy can end up with a nice two-year-old, because anybody can come across a good horse, and if you’re lucky enough, you can get well rewarded. If you end up having a horse that’s second to a good Ballydoyle horse, he becomes a very valuable horse. If we have more races and dilute that quality of racing, we will be in trouble, and I think that’s the one factor the people in industry have to look at. Do not let your race meetings get diluted and have more racing and less competition.”

McGuinness has sometimes benefitted from an owner purchasing, rather than selling, a promising young horse. A Case Of You joined Skylark House Stables after winning a maiden and the Group 3 Anglesey Stakes for John McConnell and went on to become McGuinness’ first Group 1 winner in the Prix de l’Abbaye and landed the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint the following year.

“The journey he brought me on was life-changing and gave me days I’ll never ever forget,” he says of his past star, while on McConnell’s conundrum, he adds, “If he was in my yard and I had given three grand for him, and someone came in and offered me that money for him, I would have had to sell him.

“I would love to keep all those good horses. But training horses in Ireland at this moment in time, if you have to rely on prize money alone, you’ll struggle to survive. You have to sell a few horses in between to really add up the books.”

Reinforcing his point, McGuinness continues, “If you win a hundred grand in prize money in Ireland, a trainer will end up getting less than 8% of that, and after he pays his taxes out of that and everything else, he’s not left with a whole pile of money. I wouldn’t think most of the smaller trainers would win two hundred grand a year. So, you have to be able to do something else to try to make it pay, and selling is what you have to do.”

Trading places

McGuinness reveals he has already sold two smart two-year-olds this year, including debut second Canto de la Terra, who has joined Donnacha O’Brien. The team also won the first three barrier trials at the latest fixture organized by Irish Thoroughbred Marketing, the IHRB and Irish EBF at Dundalk.

“Those barrier trials are great - I sold a horse from the last one in Naas and I sold one from Dundalk last year without running. It’s a great way to show off stock. I think a lot of people from all over the world look at them, and it’s a great way of selling horses.

“I wouldn’t like just to rely on two-year-olds in Ireland to make a living either, because if you have a bad year, it could put you on the side road. You need to have a mixture of both, and I need to keep staff going for the winter, so I need some horses for Dundalk as well.”

While McGuinness trades young promising types, he has also enjoyed great success buying at the horses-in-training sales, with Bowerman, Current Option, Saltonstall and Sirjack Thomas among his best buys. “We’d always be on the lookout for something that has lost his way,” he explains.

“Once they’re sound, you have a great chance of getting them back to form. You’re taking a chance when you’re buying a horse like that as well, but if it works, you can end up with a very good horse. It’s like a human playing football or anything like that - sometimes they move on to somewhere else, and all of a sudden, the system works for them, and they end up in a better way.”

State of mind

On how he brings about that change, he says, “A lot of horses in big strings, in the likes of Newmarket, are doing the same thing all the time. Some of them are just fed up. My place is really chilled out, and I think bringing those horses back here, with the facilities we have, they just start to enjoy it again. A lot of horses turn around and improve, but there’s a lot of times when that doesn’t happen.”

There are currently 47 horses riding out at Skylark House Stables, he tells me. “We’ve just finished building a brand-new yard and half the horses have moved into it so far. We’ve a three-furlong round gallop, with a four-and-a-half-furlong gallop that comes off that. We’ve a shoot as well, and they’re all sand and fibre.

“We’ve plenty of turnout paddocks; I love getting the horses out as much as possible,” he continues. McGuinness also takes advantage of the yard’s coastal location, regularly bringing horses to the sea for a refreshing change of scenery.

In contrast to the industry strongholds of Kildare and Tipperary, Lusk is better known for fruit and vegetable farming, a business McGuinness’ family grew up in. The location can make sourcing staff difficult, and Ado is passionate when discussing the importance of the industry’s workforce.

“Staff need to be looked after and minded because it’s a hard life. It’s not a nine to five job, never will be. It’s a seven day a week job. And if you really want to get on in this industry, you have to work a hell of a lot more than you’re going to work in an ordinary day job.

“We probably don’t get enough money for what we do. But to me, it’s like an addiction. When you get addicted to the sport, or to horses, it’s a very hard thing to cure.”

No Return

I was quite happy with him last Sunday; he ran very green and he’s still a maiden. I chucked him in at the deep end and he was beaten five lengths by a horse that Ger Lyons thinks a lot of. So, going on that form and looking at the Ballydoyle horse, I’d be very happy with his run.

Hopefully I can win a maiden with him and maybe get some blacktype before he’s sold.

Real Appeal

He’s a funny character. He had a bit of a setback last year and come back and won first time back at Dundalk, and we were very impressed with him, but I’ve been disappointed with his last two runs.

I’ve given him a few days off and he’s had a few days to the beach. He looks a million dollars and his bloods all came back perfect. We’re hoping he’s just had a couple of off days and that I can sweeten him up and get him back to his best ability.

Go Athletico

I’m pulling my hair out with him because he needs soft ground. I pulled him out last weekend and I brought him to Paris in May. When he set off it was soft ground and when we got there, it was good, good to firm. Then we had a downpour of rain so we ran him, but we probably shouldn’t have, because it didn’t get into the ground.

There’s plenty of entries been made for this fella, but unless we have a good ease in the ground, he won’t run. He’s entered up the Curragh, we’re looking at a couple of race in France at the back end and he probably will travel.