Where did your interest in racing and bloodstock come from?

My interest came from my parents. My father always kept a few National Hunt broodmares and my mother’s side of the family were into horses. Back then in the 50s, we started with work horses and breeding some half-breds.

I got married to Mabel in 1971 and we bought a thoroughbred mare for €500 but she wasn’t a great broodmare. We always had one or two that we’d breed out of and then we’d sell the young stock.

We started keeping some to run on the track but we had a family then so racing was put on the back burner for a while. Once the kids were reared we’d try to keep some fillies to run them and then keep those for breeding if they won.

Our eldest son, George, lost his life in 2010. He travelled the world working with horses in Australia and America. When he came home he was working for Norelands Stud and he put up 14 stables on the land at the back of our house and he managed to fill the stables with mares from various breeding operations in his first year.

He put up 14 more stables and managed to fill them again! They were mostly flat-bred mares coming from France, they’d come in November and he’d foal them down and then they’d go to be covered by Irish sires. He worked his way up to having about 50 mares.

We use the stables now for our own mares. I used to foal them all myself but that’s a young man’s game!

Tell me about Sunshine Diamond, he seems like a lovely horse.

He ran in a few point-to-points as a four-year-old. He was running well first time out under Simon Kavanagh until two horses fell in front of him, he couldn’t get the momentum going again. On his second run he finished third behind Jasmin De Vaux (Champiom Bumper winner).

Cormac Farrell trained him back then but when he moved his yard up to Kildare I wanted to keep the horses closer to home. I like to go and see them riding out about twice a week. Himself and Simon have broken in some other horses for us as well and we have a three-year-old by Jet Away there now. He’ll hopefuuly be ready to run in a point-to-point later on in the year.

Sunshine Diamond is going to Goffs Summer Sale on Monday in Doncaster, he would be a lovely horse to keep, he’s so placid but we have to keep it all moving along. He’d be a lovely horse for a syndicate or someone that likes the old-fashioned chasing type. He’s a real three-mile horse and I’d love to see him go up the ranks.

Were you confident in his chances at Wexford?

Liam (O’Brien, trainer) was very confident that he’d be in the first three because he’d been working well and doing everything right at home so we went into the race with a bit of confidence. He just needed to jump right.

He had his first run over hurdles at Punchestown but he was jumping them too big and gave himself a fright. Horses are inclined to do that when their first few runs have come over fences. He was very slick at Wexford and Conor McNamara followed my instructions keeping him well out to let him see his hurdles and make use of his high cruising speed.

He was a bit green when he hit the front so the cheekpieces definitely helped but he could probably do without them now.

What other horses are you looking forward to running?

We’ve got a few more horses coming along. My other son Stuart bought Dairy Force for the WSQ Syndicate that we’re involved in. We bought three colts at the Goffs November Foal sale last year so they’ll be part of that syndicate too.

I own a five-year-old by Jet Away named Koo Star who had a run at Galway last October but the ground was too heavy and she was a bit weak.

Dairy Force won a maiden hurdle at Kilbeggan last month and will go for a novice hurdle at Galway now. Hopefully Koo Star will go there too and enjoy some nicer ground. It’s tricky getting Koo Star to eat properly so I kept her at home here all winter and fed her plenty so I hope that she’s improved.

A vet recommended that I put my horses with Liam and both runners have won on their second starts with him, they’re getting on great.

What challenges do you face being a small owner/breeder?

It would help if there were races for the small trainers and small owner/breeders to give the ordinary man a chance. The Weatherbys ITBA National Hunt Fillies Bonus Scheme is great, Koo Star is part of that but we’re still taking on Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott there. Some bonus scheme races have five, six and seven-year-olds in them. The young horses need more opportunities on the track.

On the flat, there’s races for three-year-old fillies, two-year-old fillies, three-year-old geldings and two-year-old colts. There isn’t much like that in the National Hunt scene. There were seven and 11-year-olds in that race at Wexford, it doesn’t give younger horses a chance. He still bet them though!

It’s hard at the sales as well with people looking for commission. We might only get €5,000 for a horse and they want 5% commission, I can’t do that after breeding the horse and keeping it myself for a few years.

We’ll tip along on a small scale for however long we have in this world!