A NEIGHBOUR of ours at home in Castlelyons (Co Cork), had a pony. I learned how to ride on that.

After that I did a bit of pony racing. Not an awful lot but I rode a few winners at it. I would mostly have ridden around the southern circuit.

I then went up to the Curragh, where I was apprenticed to Mick Hurley. Frank Berry, who had been there as an apprentice before me, had only just moved on. I rode one winner on the flat during the time I was there.

After three years, I just started to get a bit too heavy so I went over the jumps. I went back down home to Cork where I rode out for John Crowley and Jimmy ‘Jazz’ Murphy. In 1980, I rode a Kerry National winner for Jazz Murphy, Perspex Pride.

The following year, myself and Mark Dwyer went over to Jimmy Fitzgerald in Malton (North Yorkshire). By that time, I had ridden over 175 winners in Ireland, so was riding without a claim. Mark had been champion apprentice the previous year.

I rode most of the stable runners over fences, while Mark, who was only starting out over jumps, rode the hurdlers.

I rode some really nice horses during those years – Forgive ‘n Forget, Galway Blaze, Canny Danny and Androma. I was beaten a short-head in a Whitbread Gold Cup on Androma, on whom Mark won two Scottish Grand Nationals. I spent 14 years in England.

After retiring from riding in 1986/87, I stayed on and started training from a base in Malton. We did quite well with a relatively small string of horses.

The first year I had the licence, we got off to a flying start, sending out nine winners from just 10 individual runners. Mark Dwyer and Lorcan Wyer rode most of my horses. We knew each other for years and were all great mates.

Back to Ireland

In 1995, I made the decision to come back to Ireland. It was always my idea to come home but I fell in love with England. I knew it was a case of now or never.

I started training from the Tinarana Estate in Killaloe (Co Clare). Charlie Swan rode my first winner in Ireland; Micks Delight in Killarney in May 1996. Jason Titley rode my second winner, Iona Flyer.

I had a very good horse, Aldino, which Charlie Swan won three races on. He was also fourth at Liverpool; a great day out. Through the connection with Charlie, I ended up training for J.P. McManus.

Hanko was the first winner I trained for him, at Downpatrick in 2003. Over the years, I had some nice winners such as Sundeck, Schelm, Queeny and One Fine Morning. However, I always wanted to get into the buying and selling side of the industry.

I brought a good few bumper horses to England to race. We did quite well with those over the years. They were usually sold afterwards to remain over there.

Sales success

We had plenty of success consigning horses at the sales over the years. We topped the Cheltenham April Sale in 2012 with Facino Rustico who made €360k. He had won his bumper for us in Carlisle earlier that month.

In 2015, Three Ways also won on his debut at Carlisle before topping the Tattersalls Ireland Cheltenham Sale at €190k. Keeper Hill won his bumper at Market Rasen the same year, before selling for €110k.

On the back of sales success, I bought my own 20-acre farm, Willow Farm Stables, in Killaloe. Although I’ve had some good success training horses, I concentrate more on the point-to-point and sales side of things now.

It’s almost impossible to get staff at the moment, as any trainer will tell you. Without good staff, you can’t run a successful training operation. I enjoy breaking and bringing young horses along before moving them on.

I’ve broken some very good horses for J.P. McManus over the years. Tony McCoy’s Grand National winner Don’t Push It was here for a time before going to Jonjo (O’Neill).

We broke him and got him going. I also had Any Second Now, who went on to finish second in the Grand National for Ted Walsh a couple of years ago.

It’s nice to see those type of horses go on and do well once they leave here to go into training.

Ronnie was in conversation with John O’Riordan.