Joshua’s Daylami was a short price at Punchestown. Were you expecting her to win?

We’d never really seen her perform on that ground before, so we were a little bit wary of backing her that day ourselves. But the form read very well because she finished fourth in a very good bumper in Punchestown and subsequently, after her win, the winner Bambino Fever went on to win at Cheltenham.

Still, you got the most important outcome.

Exactly and that was the first win for me since I registered the colours in my name. It was very fitting because Paul also trained the first winner in those colours for my late mother, Fiona, back in 2016.

It was a mare called Coffee Cantata, and she actually won the fillies’ bonus that day in Tramore as well. That was our first bonus win - it was the first one we actually registered.

Were you there to enjoy Joshua’s Daylami’s win?

I was. I try to make it to every time I have a runner, no matter whether it’s in Ireland or England, we try to put the work beside for a couple of hours to make it.

It’s a long road with National Hunt and you’ve put your faith behind them. So, if you can’t turn up the races for just one day, no matter how good or bad it is, there’s not much point in doing that.

Will you now try get blacktype?

That’s the aim. We were slightly taken back with her in the Grade 3, she was traveling very well and the horse fell on her inside. She kind of took a gasp of air and got a little bit of a fright.

She’s never had one fall beside her before and the jockey Cian Cullinan just minded her the whole way around, and he said he actually found it hard to pull her up in the end, once she did get her breath back.

We may now look at something in around the Festival. She is qualified for that bonus at Punchestown. We don’t know whether we’ll try and aim at that, but we will definitely be going for blacktype again in the near future.

Have you always thought she had ability?

Aaron Fahey rode her in her first two bumpers and we have to say a lot for him. In the few rides he did give her, he gave us great feedback, and he put a lot of work into her. It’s very unfortunate he didn’t get to ride her to win due to his accident.

He’s there in the yard as often as he can, with Paul, monitoring her progress. He was thrilled to see her win that day in Punchestown, so hopefully now she’ll go on and prove us all right.

Looking at what she won that day - €6,000 – the ITBA Mares Bonus of €5,000 really does make a difference.

It does. When you look at the costs that come out of it when you win a race, there’s nearly 21% goes automatically, between jockey fees, prize money to the trainer, entries, contributions to the Injured Jockeys Fund, etc.

So realistically, when you get that bonus of a straight €5,000 that it really does help, and it’s basically another couple of months training fees covered as well. It’s very welcome.

How did you come to own Joshua’s Daylami?

I was over at a breeze-up sale in France and a friend of mine introduced me to the owner of Joshua Tree. We had a long chat, and he brought me up the field, and out of about 37 horses, I picked her, as a two-year-old.

We always bought a filly to race each year, in the hope that we will have good success on the track and we can actually go down the breeding route with them. She was bought originally for my mother to run in her colours, but unfortunately, she passed away in 2022 and never got to see her.

You previously had a Grade 2 winner with Paul Fahey, Ballyshannon Rose. Do you still own her?

Ballyshannon Rose also won the bonus, and she was the last one to race under my mother’s name.

We actually sold her privately. When my mother passed, we unfortunately had to sell off some of our horses, but I’m delighted she went to a good breeder, Denis Cusack. We recommended her to him and we actually put her in foal to Poet’s Word, we thought that she’d have a very nice-looking foal by him.

The filly foal since sold for €72,000 and all the big players were in that day. We went up ourselves with a small syndicate in the hopes that we might steal her at about 45 to 50 grand but unfortunately, we were blown out of the water.

On the other side of things, you have an exciting flat horse in Tina’s Indian.

He’s very exciting indeed. I own him in partnership with a client and friend, Con Harrington. I’ve been running his farm there for the last 10 years.

He said he was having trouble getting Indian Maiden in foal, so we said we’d take her over to the farm and we’ll do a deal. We basically split the costs 50:50, and we got the Calyx colt, and brought him to Newmarket. We vendored him at 55,000gns. Con was very bullish, he said, he’s worth more, so we’ll race him.

After a long two-year-old season of not running and then going in as three-year-old, we sent him to Mark Fahey and Mark loved him from day one. We were lucky enough that he proved his point first time out in the Curragh, winning a seven-furlong maiden, and just with his fractions and everything we turned down quite a bit of money for him. But Con was bullish, he said: “Look, let’s race him. If he does fulfill his potential, he’d be worth a lot more.” I hope he’s right!