How did you get involved in the racing industry?
I grew up going pony racing every weekend. Both sides of the family were always interested in horses. Dad always kept a few for pony racing and my mam’s two brothers, Adrian and Hugh, did as well. When I wasn’t with Dad helping him, I was always along with Adrian and Hugh helping them. If it wasn’t for that, I probably wouldn’t have as much of an interest in racing as I do today.
What’s your role in your dad’s yard?
I do general yard duties, look after entries, booking jockeys, a lot of the groundwork and I bring horses to the vets and to the beach.
We go to the beach probably three times a week, we’d tip about maybe try and go swimming a day, or ride around the roads. We try to do something different every day, just to keep their heads occupied and keep them fresh.
How did you feel going into the race?
I was quietly confident, and that’s hard to say with a 33-race maiden. He’s always there or thereabouts in Dundalk, but on the run previous to his win in Sligo, he bled. We had a rough time, where all of our horses were sick. They were all scoping clean, but we just couldn’t get to the bottom of it.
They were bleeding and just weren’t themselves in the yard. We did lung washes with all of them and it revealed that there was aspergillus in their lungs. Anjah was running all winter when the rest of them were sick and it didn’t affect him. When the rest of them recovered, that’s when he got sick, so it just worked its course at different times.
I thought he was overpriced at 33/1, but I’d say it was to do with him bleeding on his last start that he was such a big price.
Anjah was still a maiden after 33 runs until he won for you, how did you end up buying him?
He’s frustrating. He looked a good enough horse in England in his younger days, and I remember the first night I saw him run. I saw him in the parade ring and I said to Dad: ‘I have half a notion of that lad’. I liked him. He ran and Shane Foley rode him, I think he finished maybe fifth or sixth.
I thought I wouldn’t mind having him, if we could get him. I remember it was April Fool’s Day, I looked him up and Dad thought I was trying to play an April Fool’s joke on him. He was a 27-race maiden at the time. I thought he might not be too bad, if he got a change of scenery and went to the beach, you could sweeten him up.
James McAuley had him at the time and my dad had been friends with him for years. I half tortured Dad’s head coming down the road about him. He said he’d ring James and see what the story was with the horse. Dad bought Anjah for me as a present, because I was mad about him at the time. We went up and collected him and I was like a kid at Christmas.
How did you get into ownership?
It was the time when pony racing stopped during Covid. I thought we could have a go at training under rules, when there’s nothing happening with pony racing. Maybe try and make a living at it, because there’s plenty of lads coming down the same route.
Dad thought about it and said ‘sure we have nothing to lose. We have a couple of horses there, we’ll have a go at it’. I was hoping at the time we could have got a joint licence, but I was too young to be involved. I was old enough to be an owner at the time, so he wanted me to get registered as an owner, so I could still have an involvement in it.
I was just sitting for hours and hours every night, for maybe two weeks, trying to design colours and going through hundreds. I remember Dylan (Browne McMonagle) was riding a horse called Baron Samedi at the time and won a Group 1 on him. I liked the pattern of the colours, so that’s how I chose them.
Are there any horses in the yard that you’re looking forward to?
Dad and I have few, but they were all just very sick. There’s a couple there that are nice to look forward to now, because we’re hoping they’re well handicapped, just to come back to what they were before they got sick.
Do you have retirement plans for your horses for when that time comes?
We had a horse called Coviglia, when all our horses got sick, he turned into a chronic bleeder. His last run for us was in March and, if it wasn’t for the vets doing such a good job that night, I would say we could have lost him.
We couldn’t give him a second chance on the track or send him pony racing, but there’s a girl about 20 minutes from us at home that my auntie put me in touch with. She does Racehorse to Riding horse and dressage with retired racehorses.
I knew she was looking for a horse at the time, so she came and looked at him and she fell in love with him straight away. We were happy to give him to her, as we knew he was going to a good home and being looked after the way he should be.
We’re always welcome to go down and see him and he’s being retrained at the minute for dressage. He’s living like a king. I’m always happy to try and get good homes for them when I can. There’s more than just racing for them, they need a second life as well.
Are there any races on your bucket list that you’d like to win or have a runner in?
At the moment, we just have low-grade handicappers, there’s nothing special in the yard, but if we had a good horse, good enough to travel, I’d love to have a runner in Dubai. We were out there on holidays, maybe three or four years ago and the way they do it out there is unbelievable.
I’d love to go back out there with a runner. When our horses get back to form, you never know what could happen.
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