FORMER Danish international event rider Dot Love is re-inventing herself yet again having signed off on her racehorse training career last Sunday. The mother of two and grandmother of four, who has lived in Ireland since the mid-1960s, enjoyed a superb final weekend as a licensed trainer.

She first sent out the Aaron Murphy-partnered Betty Zane (25/1) to land the mares’ bumper at Cork on Saturday before Sarah Kavanagh guided Flindt (16/1) to victory in the Happy Retirement Dot Love Ladies Handicap Hurdle at Fairyhouse the following afternoon. That Co Meath track was, of course, where Dot recorded her biggest training success when, in 2013, she saddled Liberty Counsel to win the Ladbrokes Irish Grand National as a 50/1 shot under then 5lbs-claimer, Ben Dalton.

While Kavanagh, who is a professional jockey, did little riding until attending the British Racing School in Newmarket, the amateur Murphy was involved in equestrianism before turning to racing, with his skills being honed by Love. He is a younger brother of leading international event rider Joseph and the latter’s twin Ciaran who is taking over the licence at Charlestown Racing where he has worked with Dot for the past 25 years, most recently as assistant trainer. Their roles will now be reversed.

“I have really enjoyed training but feel the time is right to hand over to Ciaran,” said Dot who competed at Badminton (once) and Burghley (twice) on The Professional who his owner hunted for many years following his retirement from eventing. “I couldn’t have achieved what I did without Ciaran and the wonderful support of my daughter Melanie and my son Mickey, his wife Sarah and their three children Timmy, Holly and Matthew; the two boys ride out regularly for the yard.

“Timmy (who has ridden a bumper winner and seven point-to-point winners) and Holly both competed for Ireland at Pony Europeans on Cloughreagh Charlie who we broke here at Charlestown. Matthew is now riding the pony and hopefully he too will get to represent Ireland when things return to some sort of normality. I should have plenty of time in the future to follow their progress and that of Joseph who tells me he has some lovely horses for the upcoming season.”