You’ve been part of Meitheal’s dam line for a long time, how did it start?

CF: Niall’s family have had horses all their lives really. His parents had a winner in Cheltenham in 1977 and they’ve had broodmares since before that.

NF: They bought their first mare in 1973 and she would be Meitheal’s great, great grandmother I think.

CF: Shuil Aghragh was the first one they bought and she had Shuil Liss, and Shuil Liss had Liss A Paoraigh who then had Liss Na Tintri which is Meitheal’s dam, so it’s not bad going I suppose!

NF: We had Colreevy with Willie Mullins as well and she won 16 times in total.

Is there anything that stands out in a young horse that would make you think you had a good one?

CF: Niall always says the ones that are a bit quirky are the good ones. When you’re teaching a young horse and doing things with them, and they remember it next time, I think that’s a good sign. It’s frustrating when you’re going back to square one all of the time.

NF: I think the walk is important, and their ears. Meitheal has a great physique, she’s a model. You’d stay looking at her all day. She’s out of a Presenting mare and they’re doing very well, she was a fine specimen as well.

CF: When her dam, Liss Na Tintri got injured on her last run in Galway, the vet there was really into his half-breds and said he’d love to have her as a broodmare if we didn’t have a home for her! In regards to Meitheal, Niall was always very fond of her, but he was getting a lot of stick for bringing his mare to Imperial Monarch! It’s obviously worked out okay.

How was the day at Cork?

CF: The weather wasn’t great but we were well looked after. We were well fed and watered so it was lovely. Niall’s three brothers, John, Alan and Pierce, were there and our daughter Sinéad. When the horses are going well, we’re nearly tempted to cut down on the cows but John (Kiely, trainer) always advises us to keep the cows going! The horses could let us down or things could go wrong. Meitheal has been in training for a long time, but John was always confident that she would do well, she just needed time. She was tall and needed to fill out, which she has.

That’s the beauty of having John and Thomas (Kiely) training her, they didn’t rush her which was great. John trained the majority of Niall’s parents’ horses as well. They’re only down the road. We use Niall’s parents’ colours which are actually the original Kiely colours, just with a different hat, they were all using the same set back in the day!

You must have been confident going into the race with her considering the success in her family.

NF: The ground was a big concern, it was just on the firm side. Thankfully, she’s come out of it and she seems to be good. I couldn’t believe that she was at such short odds, she was 2/7 favourite!

CF: John and Thomas felt she’d prefer softer conditions and extend herself better. We won anyway so that was good and she’s got a good record now. Two wins and two seconds.

What’s the plan with Meitheal now?

NF: The plan at the moment is to go to Navan in the middle of November for the listed bumper. We’ll have to see what the ground does.

CF: Surely by then the ground will have softened up. John and Thomas feel a track like that would suit her. We’ll see, I’m sure there are plenty of others aiming for the race as well.

It must be a great feeling to see them as foals and then to go on and win.

CF: It’s lovely, and in fairness to John and Tommy, you could call in there any time of day or night. They’d regularly give Niall a shout to say they’re doing a bit of work or whatever. It’s lovely for the mares as well, they do themselves justice because there’s a lot of luck involved too and things have to go their way, and when it does, it’s great. When you have a few wins under your belt it makes all the difference.

Have you come across any challenges in the industry?

NF: The breeding game has gone very tight. All of our expenses have gone up, and we’re getting less for our stock, which doesn’t make sense. If you think of what we paid for a set of shoes 10 years ago, compared to today, or a bale of straw, a bale of hay, the nuts, everything has gone up and the value of our animal has gone down.

You have to be a bit ruthless now. Standing fees are expensive but Coolmore aren’t putting a gun to my head and forcing me to use their stallions, it’s my choice.

CF: It’s easy to say that you don’t have to go to the top-of-the-range stallions, but if you don’t you might not sell your foal, it’s a Catch-22.

NF: At the end of the day, the market is flooded, but the breeders are the ones flooding it and I include myself in that. We all have to take a rain check. Everybody is making money out of breeders, except the breeders themselves. There are too many mares being covered but it’s hard to cut back when you’ve bred the whole family.

CF: Syndicates are the ideal way to do it, even for us with Niall’s brothers it makes it more doable. Equally then, having a trainer that will tell you when there’s no point in persevering with one. We’re lucky with John and Thomas, they’re usually fairly accurate.