CONOR O’Dwyer finished up as a jockey riding a winner at the Fairyhouse Easter Festival on March 24th, doing what he had done best for a quarter of a century on a horse called Mister Top Notch.

It was a common observation at the time that there could not have been a more appropriately named conveyance for the then 41-year-old’s signing off than the horse he had previously steered to a seven-length triumph in the Grade 1 Dr PJ Moriarty Novice Chase for owner Marie Cronin and trainer Davy Fitzgerald.

O’Dwyer was and is one of the most popular individuals in racing, a man with a ready smile and easy manner.

He has always been social too, and maybe then, Hangover providing him with his first success as a trainer the previous January might have been fitting as well.

Fast forward to last Sunday at Naas and Battle It Out galloping to a smooth success in the Listed Nás Na Ríogh Novice Handicap Chase, with son Charlie donning the silks of J.P. McManus.

You know where this is going.

There have been good days with the likes of Competitive Edge, Folsom Blue and Don’t Go among others. They had great fun with Jon Ess, named after his late friend and former weigh room colleague, John Shortt, who died of cancer in 2017.

But it has been a grind in recent years. Battle It Out was O’Dwyer’s second victory of the season from 50 runners, bringing his accumulated prize money to €53,320. He saddled five winners from 92 last season. He did saddle two more winners on the flat in 2023.

The high-water mark was the 14 winners from 138 runners that yielded €174,195 in 2011/’12. So Sunday was very welcome.

“That’s what keeps us trainers going,” O’Dwyer explains. “The big yards are used to that or expect it every day or have the horses to do it every day but those days are what it’s all about for a small yard.”

Battle It Out was bought as a three-year-old at the Tattersalls Derby Sale for €80,000 by Kieran McManus from breeder Noel Guiry (consigned by Peter Nolan). It meant the world that the buyer’s father, J.P. and his right-hand man, Frank Berry - a mentor from the time a young O’Dwyer joined the racing circuit - would continue to support him. That the Flemensfirth gelding had potential was a bonus.

Ability

“Since we brought him here, we’ve always loved him and thought there was always the ability there. It’s just about nursing those horses the right way.

“Everything came right on the way between the bit of extra distance, the ground, Charlie gave him a super ride, it was a nice weight.

“Everything was there but look, there’s plenty days you go racing everything is there to suit you and it doesn’t work either. I’ve often went to the races more confident about a horse and it not working out.”

It was evident that Battle It Out was going to be about the larger obstacles and O’Dwyer didn’t even bother with a bumper. He ran in five maiden hurdles in three month from St Stephen’s Day 2022 to March ’23 of last year, when after finishing third in his two previous attempts, he got his head in front on heavy ground at Cork, stepped up to two and a half miles for the first time.

A bad fall on his second try over fences last November might have been a setback but two nice runs at Fairyhouse preceded the Naas romp, when again, the intermediate trip and testing ground played to his strengths.

Nice race

“We went to Punchestown hoping he’d run a nice race though it was only two miles. He was making nice ground. He was going to finish placed and jumped well. And funny enough, had probably gotten over-confident about his jumping. He nearly took it for granted at the second last and jeez, he got an awful fall and I thought it would take a long time but in fairness to him, he took it on the chin and we did a bit of schooling at home.

“And while he was a bit careful, the few runs gave him the confidence back. And the Fairyhouse run was a lovely run (when a seven-length fourth in a handicap on January 27th), we couldn’t have asked for better on the day.”

It was a peach of a ride by the youngest of O’Dwyer’s two sons six days ago. And while one might think growing up in a yard on the Curragh would have meant this route was inevitable for the now 20-year-old, that isn’t the case.

“When you’re quiet with horses, there’s days you’d wonder what it’s all about but to have him there as part of the team and to be knowing you’re bringing him along as well, ah jeez it’s a huge bonus.

“Not only is he good but the fact that he’s part of the family, it just makes it so much better and more enjoyable on those days.

“Funny enough, as a kid he was fairly nervous. It was more his mother kept going with him really, than his father, being honest. I actually thought he was that nervous, he wouldn’t enjoy it.

“In fairness, Audrey dragged him around to lots of shows and stuff. Then he got a lot of confidence and got going. He came in one day and said he wanted to ride out the racehorses and Audrey is going, ‘No, no, you can’t do that!’ And I said, ‘Be careful what you wish for, you’ve only one person to blame!’

“But he went from strength to strength. He’s a great lad and great to have around the place. But all those younger lads are finding it very hard to get rides. So for J.P. to be loyal to him and leave him on the horse, it can change a career to have a big winner on those days.”

It was notable the number of people you met at Naas that expressed delight for the O’Dwyer clan.

“There’s a lot of goodwill out there. I know it’s all about making money and business but at the end of the day, to see Audrey coming back there and able to enjoy the day and see her son riding a winner, it makes it all and it’s what it’s all about really.”

You enquire, with tongue in cheek, whether Charlie got a little slap on the wrist for winning 13 lengths and it elicits a hearty guffaw.

“We spoke about it after and I said, ‘There wasn’t a lot you could do because if you waited longer you would have nearly made him look better. Or if you sit up on them and don’t give them a good squeeze, the handicapper’s wondering how much did you have in hand.’ It’s a tough one.

“As I said to somebody after who said to me, ‘Jeez, he’ll get a fair hike for that,’ and I said, ‘But sure, you can’t have it every way. If he fell at the last you’d be a lot sicker going home.’ He got 11lb and I think that was fair on the horse. You go and win a normal 0-116 race, you’d get seven or eight, so to get an extra three or four now to win a €45,000 listed race, I’ll take it any day of the week anyway!”

The dream

Fairyhouse or Punchestown might be in the mix now for Battle It Out if the ground stays soft and then, it will be a summer of eating and strengthening up, to fill in the frame that remains a bit hollow. And then the dream of more progress to come from the six-year-old.

O’Dwyer will, of course, be battling the numbers and quality of the game’s behemoths with his best dart but he has no issue with the operations built in particular by Willie Mullins or Gordon Elliott in a free, open market. He does think HRI could do a little more, however, though not specifically for trainers.

“There’s about 20 horses in there, but there’s always four or five of them injured. It’s not enough to be firing in winners here and there. You’re barely keeping people going.

“Look, most lads are the same. I’m not giving out. It’s the way it is. But it’s nice that the likes of ourselves or other small trainers can have a good winner, to show that once you have the ammunition, you can do it.

“You can’t blame anybody. You can’t blame Willie Mullins. If I was in his position, you’d be doing the very same thing. He’s just an absolute genius at what he does. He’s built it that way. It wasn’t handed to him either. So I’ve no qualms like that.

Stepping in

“I do think though, for the good of racing, HRI should be stepping in to do something for – and it’s not even the smaller trainers – lower grade horses really is the problem. I noticed a couple of lower grade flat horses… I sold one there in October, Virtual Hug. He has had 11 runs in Wolverhampton. He’s won two.

“Now he was a very middle-of-the-road horse here but I actually, this morning, texted his new trainer Nikki Evans, ‘Well done,’ and I said that horse might have been lucky to have three runs in that space of time here, which is not fair on an owner paying the same bills for him as they are for a 140-rated horse.

“There should be a system that when a trainer wants to run his horse, there’s a race there for them. That’s my gripe about the whole thing.

“It’s not Willie or Gordon taking over. That’s your own business and you’ve to fight your own corner on that one but it’s hard for me to say to a syndicate of lads, ‘Your horse can’t run at Dundalk for six weeks because he got balloted out the other day and there’s not another race, or he’ll be balloted the next day.’”

With 35 boxes, he is open for business and willing to take in horses to train. After this conversation, he will be heading home to visit his 95-year-old mother Kay, a former matron at Wexford Hospital. While down that neck of the woods, he will have a look at a few horses because you have to keep working.

Of course the Model County has become an international centre for the production of elite jumps horses, although it always had a strong tradition in all the equine pursuits, even if O’Dwyer himself had no background in horses.

Again, O’Dwyer has nothing but respect for the commercial operations that have been built in the point-to-point sector by the likes of fellow Yellowbellies Colin Bowe, Denis Murphy, Michael Goff and the Doyle brothers but it has impacted trainers.

Made a business

“Again, they’ve done nothing wrong. They’ve made a business out of it for themselves, but years ago we’d go to the Derby Sale or the Land Rover and say you’d chance a ten grand or twelve grand horse for somebody and turn them into something.

“But that ten grand horse is now twenty grand because the lads are on credit and just filling the box with them really. You’re there standing with your ten grand and there’s not much you can do with it!

“You just have to keep looking, maybe meet syndicates at the races or a few lads together. We did a lot of business over the years at the races. Everybody did. There’s nobody going racing anymore. There’s nobody to meet. It’s a big problem. It’s a changing world.

“The sales are more the place to do business now. You’re there meeting people.

“It’s not that you’re buying. Maybe somebody hasn’t sold a horse and say, ‘Here, take him.’ But a lot of them are asking you to take a half-share but you’re not in a position to do that. You need cashflow.”

Such pronouncements are made matter-of-factly, without any hint of bitterness. That just isn’t Conor O’Dwyer’s style.

He is looking forward to Cheltenham, even if it is a little bloated for his liking. This year marks the 20th anniversary of Hardy Eustace’s first Champion Hurdle.

Lar Byrne’s gritty gelding, prepared so expertly by the late Dessie Hughes, died at the beginning of February at 27. O’Dwyer had visited him on occasion at his retirement home at the Irish National Stud and the horse will always have a special place in his heart.

“I remember Dessie saying that the Coral was his race. Then he rang me, maybe two weeks before to say that he’d changed his mind and that he was going to go for the Champion.

Good thing

“Listen, it was brilliant to have a ride in the Champion but if you can ever be certain of one in Cheltenham, he looked a good thing in the Coral. And I’m thinking, ‘Aw Jesus, there’s a winner gone.’ But as history showed, Dessie Hughes knew more about it than I did.

“He’d unbelievable heart. He might not have had the most class like other good horses I rode but he’d the most heart by far. He never wanted to get beat. You’d always know two or three out, when you put a little squeeze on him, if the head went up you were in trouble and if the head came down you were in business. Simple as.”

A Coral Cup would have looked out of kilter on O’Dwyer’s Cheltenham CV, as it happens. He won four times at the Festival, and split those evenly between Hardy’s two Champion Hurdles and a pair of Gold Cups on Imperial Call and War Of Attrition.

“No matter what, Cheltenham is Cheltenham. I’m probably old fashioned and rather see it three days and it kept to the Grade 1s but it’s a corporate world and they want as many people as they can as many days as they can.

“But if I had any sort of winner there or saw Charlie ride a winner there, it would be amazing.”

For a variety of reasons - the unavailability of Charlie Swan and David Casey, and the tragic death of Kieran Kelly, O’Dwyer inherited the rides mid-way through the careers of his three Cheltenham heroes. It sort of sums the man up.

Nothing has ever come easily but when given the artillery, he invariably hit the target.

Training has been tougher, no doubt about it, but Sunday reminded us again. Give him the horse and he will do the business.

He would like things to be better, to have more horses but with Charlie keen, Audrey offering unyielding support and him knowing nothing else, he will graft to the last.

Battle it out.