AS former US president Gerald Ford once put it, the American dream does not come to those who fall asleep.

Shanagarry, Co Cork native Brendan Walsh has never rested on his ambitions of making it to the big time, and last weekend he savoured the culmination of more than 30 years’ work when Pretty Mischievous came home in front under the twin spires of Churchill Downs to land the Longines Kentucky Oaks.

A motivated but measured horseman who has held a trainer’s licence since 2011, Walsh was recording his sixth win in Grade 1 company but this one meant more. A first classic win, his biggest career success - and it came in the colours of Godolphin, who he started out with three decades ago and honed his skills alongside in several international ventures.

The magnitude of a top-level winner on Kentucky Derby weekend - in what is believed to be the joint-oldest continuously contested sporting event in American history - meant the world to Walsh. As he told Nick Luck in the immediate post-race exchanges: “We’re absolutely ecstatic… I’d say there won’t be a cow milked in Cork for a week after this.”

Five days on from the $1.25 million success, his phone was still pinging with well-wishes and congratulations when sitting down to reflect on the landmark victory.

“We’ve been lucky to have winners on the big days, and in Grade 1s, but to win a classic is different altogether - unbelievable,” he says.

“You get swept away by the whole thing. I’ve never seen a reception like what we got last weekend. People haven’t stopped congratulating us all week since, everyone hears about it. It’s on national television and is like nothing else. It’s been surreal, a big deal over here.

“There’s great opportunity here if you work hard - it doesn’t get handed to you. Like anything, if you’re trying to get to the top you have to work at it. If you do put in the effort, people will look after you. Even if it’s not to make it as a trainer, there’s a good lifestyle here and you get paid well if you’re a good assistant or something like that.

“The hours are countless, but that’s the same as any role of this nature. Luckily enough we managed to get the breaks along the way. It all adds up. When I look back, the right horses came along at the right time.”

The path that has seen Walsh break into the top 15 trainers in America in terms of earnings over the past two years - with totals of $7.6 million in 2021 and $8.7 million in 2022 - has taken him to many staging posts in the world of racing.

Horses were not a constant in his upbringing on a farm in Shanagarry. His late father Patrick had a deep interest in greyhounds but a desire to work with horses always seemed to shine through for the young man who went to school in Midleton CBS and was in the same year as two-time Hurler of the Year Brian Corcoran.

“There were no horses on the farm but for whatever reason I was always obsessed with them from a young age,” he explains.

“Whenever anyone had them near us I just wanted to be around them, and I don’t know where the interest came from. I was always mad to be with horses and I went after it once I got old enough.

“My father bought me a little pony, who we used to go to gymkhanas with, and it was great fun from there. I went to the apprentice school but probably got homesick, was a bit too young and ended up going back home. I couldn’t get away from the animal, though.

“Further down the line I went to work for the vet John Hyde in Cork before doing the Irish National Stud course. They were always breaking a tonne of Sheikh Mohammed’s yearlings at Kildangan back then before they went out to the trainers, and I got a job riding the yearlings.

International outlook

“I did a few trips to France, worked for John Hammond for a couple of summers and one year we brought horses to Dubai for the winter with Jimmy Lenehan, who has been a good friend of mine. I rode out a bit at Al Quoz and they then asked me to head to Newmarket the summer after. I ended up spending a good amount of time riding out for Godolphin and running a barn.

“I worked with Mark Wallace at a time when he was going really strong and Benbaun was flying along, but I spent a couple of summers in America with Godolphin and really liked it here. The opportunity arose to work for Eddie Kenneally on this side of the water and I spent four years with him before getting a few horses to go out on my own. Here we are.”

An ally Walsh became close to on his travels was the late Pat Smullen, who notched five group-race wins on Benbaun when in the care of Wallace, including the 2007 Prix de l’Abbaye.

“We were great friends, always kept track of each other,” says Walsh.

“When I first went out to Dubai we used to hang out, along with Ted Durcan, who worked in Godolphin with me during those summers as well. We had great fun together.

“Pat was a great man, a great person above all else. When I started training he’d always give you a call when things were going good, but also when they weren’t so good. We miss him terribly but he handled himself incredibly well to the end, which was a mark of the person he was. I do think he was riding that filly for me in the Oaks from up there.”

Walsh, who turns 50 this month, didn’t take long to make an impact as a handler, but he points to the 25/1 upset win of Plus Que Parfait in the 2019 UAE Derby at Meydan as a key moment in his career.

Sliding doors moment

“The other evening at dinner we were speaking about how Godolphin first sent me horses,” he reflects.

“At the time I brought Plus Que Parfait out to Dubai, that was just when Godolphin began to move horses back to Kentucky, where the prize money was starting to strengthen. The organisation was spreading their horses out amongst trainers.

“They told me that the Dubai win was kind of what caught their attention about me, but, in fact, there was a period when I wasn’t sure about even bringing the horse there. I decided I wasn’t going to take him there after his runs in a few Derby trials but thankfully we took a shot at it as his work got better. The rest is history. You need moments like that along the way.

“When I first came to Kentucky, a maiden at Churchill Downs would have been worth around $36,000. Those races are now worth $100,000 and upwards. The prize money has tripled in some cases. Bigger pots mean bigger owners, which in turn leads to better horses.

“I was lucky to be in the right place at the right time. You need the right stock because even if you were the best coach in the world, you still need top players. When you’re dealing with Godolphin, you’re dealing with the best stock around.”

Despite Churchill Downs being a scene of great joy for Walsh last weekend, a shadow of sorts hung over the Kentucky Derby meeting when seven horses died at the Louisville track in just over a week.

Pressure appears to be mounting from external forces concerned over welfare issues, while it was also reported this week that ante-post Derby favourite Forte, who was scratched from the race on veterinary advice, failed a drugs test following his win in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes last September.

Industry challenges

Walsh says: “It’s going through a tough time. Maybe it’s not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Like in Europe, it’s gotten to a point now where some people and protestors are wanting to raise hell over the whole thing and we’re trying to appease a certain type of person about the game. You have certain groups trying to upset and stop it here, but these people often don’t seem to have any plan for what they’d actually do if racing ended and they got their wish. There’s no sense to it.

“When we were kids there’d be people protesting at the gates of Clonmel for the coursing, and I think it’s the people who don’t understand the game who are going against it. We know that these horses get the best of everything and are treated better than humans. I’m very proud to be involved in the industry.”

The way in which American racing is regulated is regularly a bone of contention in the industry, with rules and suspensions often differing from state to state.

“You would like to see more unity and a more uniform way - like it is generally in Europe - but things are very divided here” Walsh explains.

“The country is the same with politics, as well as how the country is divided up to have different laws in different states outside of racing. That’s a lot of the problem

“There is an effort to bring in this HISA (Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act) initiative and it’s being objected against. That was originally formed to have uniform medication and things like that, but the reason people have gone against it is how they’ve gone about the process.

“I’m not objecting to it if it’s done the right way, but they’re starting to make rules that take the everyday horsemanship away from people, making rules about therapies that you need to take care of these horses. Silly stuff that creates a lot of paperwork.

“I appreciate what they’re trying to do but it seems they’ve gone the wrong way about it. A more common-sense approach would have very few people against it. Hopefully they can get it ironed out and it would be welcomed.”

Walsh will have his biggest string of roughly 100 horses once the latest band of youngsters arrive into his care later this year. Roughly a fifth of his string represent Godolphin, who were also responsible for Walsh’s brilliant dual Grade 1 winner Maxfield. He currently has horses housed at Keeneland, Churchill Downs and Turfway Park.

“One thing that can get difficult here is that when your numbers go up, you don’t generally get all the stalls you want at the one track,” he says.

Irish recruits

“They’re not all under the one roof and that can be a little awkward. I’ve got a really nice team this year, though, including some lovely older turf fillies. A talented one is Flirting Bridge, who previously was with Henry de Bromhead. She was second in the Grade 1 E P Taylor Stakes in October and won a good allowance race at Keeneland on her first start since. She could be smart.

“I’ve also got a lovely filly from Jessica Harrington’s called Viareggio, who won a Group 3 at the Curragh last year and might be a nice type for us after winning at Keeneland last month. If anyone else has some nice turf fillies that could come over here from Ireland, the door is always open.”

As for what lies next for Kentucky Oaks heroine Pretty Mischievous, Walsh, an enthusiastic Arsenal supporter, says his three-year-old star could be in action on Belmont Stakes day next month.

“We haven’t really decided where she could go yet but there’s a great programme here for fillies like her. There’s a lovely Grade 1 we’d consider, the Acorn Stakes, at Belmont, and we’ll see how she does over the next few weeks before finalising plans.

“It was great to do it for Godolphin and Sheikh Mohammed last weekend. All we’ve got to do now is win a Derby for them.”

Already eyeing up his next milestone in the aftermath of his biggest triumph to date, Walsh will not be resting on his laurels while pursuing one of racing’s greatest prizes. No sleeping on the American dream.