How did buying the horse and forming the syndicate come about?

I got into racing a few years ago. I’ve always been in the pub and hospitality game. I’ve known Gary [McGill, trainer] a long time and I asked him to keep an eye out for a horse at the sales. Gary got back to me then to tell me he’d got one and it was just a case of putting the syndicate together.

The Taphouse Syndicate is made up of local guys. They’re all local customers. We’re good mates at the back of it all. We’re from a very small village in Derry. Maybe a population of 2,000 people. It really is one of those sort of traditional Irish villages where everybody knows everybody and so every time that the horse is running, there’s a real buzz.

The run of form that we’ve had with Building Bridges since we’ve owned him has been fairytale stuff.

When he was younger he was running in some really competitive races, it must be nice to have the chance to own a horse like that.

This was one of the elements that Gary had identified at the sales. I do have to emphasise that Building Bridges is a completely different horse now, than the horse that Gary brought home from the sales. The difference has been amazing.

The amount of work and the transformation that has happened while in Gary’s yard has been unbelievable, he’s a different animal. Words can’t express the difference that we’ve seen. Full credit to Gary and his team at the yard.

I think he’d fallen out of love with racing, he was tired and wore down. Gary was able to identify his past form and knew exactly what the horse needed, he was able to rest him and feed him up. The wee horse has got a mind of its own. Gary is very patient with him, we’ve all been very patient with him and it’s paid dividends now.

Were you confident going into the race?

He’d been on a break, so we brought him back a wee bit more fresh this time. We wanted to get a run into him in preparation for the Galway Festival, which we won at last year and hope to get an entry for again. We didn’t want to put too much stress on him.

All of our previous victories came over hurdles. We had tried him on the flat on a couple of occasions. On the flat he probably is best suited to that longer staying trip. Killian [Leonard, jockey] gave him a brilliant ride. He followed his instructions perfectly.

How did the excitement of a Galway Festival winner compare to the atmosphere at Bellewstown?

It was unbelievable. We were happy to be at Galway, just to have a runner let alone a winner. We knew the horse was in good shape, but we didn’t think that for one minute we’d have a winner there. Gary had full confidence in the horse and had him in a brilliant headspace.

From when we arrived at Bellewstown we thought it was brilliant. We’ve visited Cheltenham, Galway, Down Royal and plenty of other racecourses, but the general atmosphere in Bellewstown was something that other meetings could take a lot from. It was so relaxed and with the different entertainment going on, we thought it was excellent.

Do all 10 of you get to go racing together often?

We do make an effort every time the horse is running. It’s hard to get it where it suits everyone, there will always be one or two with family or work commitments. You’d normally find anybody that isn’t at the meeting is in the Taphouse watching. Race day in the bar there’s a height of activity as well, all of the locals gather and there’s a bit of a carnival atmosphere.

We went back to the Taphouse for a drink after as well, we always do that, it tends to get late!

How do you find the overall ownership experience when you’re at the races?

Sometimes you arrive at the races having travelled two, three or four hours, paid an entry fee for your horse and all the fees associated with it and only four members of your syndicate get a dinner card, so you have to buy however many more for the rest.

We’ve ran Building Bridges at Cheltenham and at Cartmel and I feel they were more accommodating over there. I don’t want to paint every Irish racecourse with the same brush, as some are more accommodating than others, but they are getting better for it. Even though they are syndicates, it still takes a lot of resources, a lot of money, a lot of time, a lot of effort to prepare horses to get them to the track. Without owners, you don’t have any horses.

Would you say being in a syndicate is a good way to be involved in ownership?

Absolutely. I would recommend it to anyone. Again, full credit has to go to Gary as well. I can’t speak highly enough of McGill’s yard in comparison to the last trainer that I was involved with.

Horse welfare is always going to be number one, how the horse is looked after and trained, he is also aware that there’s a certain social element to it. Gary would be a regular down here at the Taphouse, especially when Building Bridges wins. There’s an emphasis there on the trainers to communicate and get involved, and Gary gets involved every bit as much as we do with the ups and downs.

Is there a story behind the colours?

Yeah, the village we’re from is like every other Irish village, it revolves around two things. One is the chapel, and the other is the GAA club. We have a very prominent GAA club here in Bellaghy. All of the syndicate members are current members and past players of Bellaghy GAA, so obviously the colours had to be blue and white, like the club colours.