I CAN remember vividly when my first real love of racing and my keen interest in the sport was stoked.

I really connected at an incredibly early age of 14 with a gelding my Dad owned with several of his close friends in the west of Ireland (Tony Browne, Christy Feerick, Pat Butler and Hubert Hardiman) namely Golden Cygnet.

To this day I have had a scrapbook since those early days in 1977-1978 when I followed this wonderful gelding trained by E. J. O’Grady. The horse was bought for 980 guineas!

It was Tuesday, March 1978, and I had just turned 14 at the time. I was watching in my grandfather’s house in Newcastle, Galway, the Waterford Crystal Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and had taken a half day from’ The Jes’ unannounced.

My grandfather was not there as he too had gone with my late Dad, Raymond Rooney, and the owners of Golden Cygnet, to support the gelding across the Irish Sea. The 4/5 favourite gelding won by 15 lengths with Fred Rimell the trainer of the second horse Western Rose commenting ‘Never in my long experience have I seen a horse win at a festival meeting so easily’!

I was ecstatic with the performance of this wonderful six-year-old novice. I was hooked on racing at that stage. Tragically Golden Cygnet died following a fall in the Ayr Scottish Champion Hurdle ridden by amateur jockey Niall (Boots) Madden a few weeks later. This cygnet never got to be a swan!

Keenly followed

Subsequent years passed and I keenly followed my father’s involvement with several horses and his term as Senior Steward of the Turf Club (2001-2003) and as Chairperson of the Galway Race Committee (2005-2009).

He was predominately involved with Dermot Weld on the flat and Edward O’Grady on the National Hunt scene to mention a few.

In those subsequent years, two horses come to mind, Arabic Treasure trained by Dermot Weld, and Sky’s The Limit trained by Edward O’Grady. In fact, in 1992 Arabic Treasure was his first flat winner as an owner and his first ever winner at the Galway Summer Racing Festival when the colt won a maiden as 1/2 favourite on the opening day of the Galway Festival. The horse was trained by Dermot and ridden by Michael Kinane.

Sky’s The Limit winning the Coral Cup in 2006 at Presbury Park was another stand out memory when Barry Geraghty steered this five-year-old grey gelding (11st 12lb) trained by Edward O’Grady to a brilliant victory. I was there to be part of the west of Ireland celebrations and Irish celebrations.

I eventually took the jump to getting involved with a NH racing syndicate namely the Victoria Syndicate in 2005 with a few friends, when the syndicate leased a mare Mamouna Gale. She won five races and got blacktype. Not what you would expect on your first foray into the racing world!

The mare was sourced by Edward O’Grady and leased for two years. When the mare returned to its original owner, Johnny Rogan, after the lease expired, I got involved with another syndicate namely the Pacemen Syndicate with a horse called Salt Lake. This animal won three times and I now had the bug for racehorse ownership.

Sponsoring

We as a family have been involved with sponsoring the Rooney Jockeys Championships for the Galway Summer Racing Festival for over 40+ years now. I think this partnership with the Galway Race Committee might be even longer than the long-standing association Guinness have with this brilliant festival over the years.

The late Pat Smullen won the Rooney Flat Championship on multiple occasions. A gentleman of the highest order and a true professional, Pat knew how to ride the Galway track for his boss and he did ‘float home’ winning multiple flat races on many occasions at Galway.

It is great to have his memory alive and well with a Perpetual Memorial Cup that the Galway Race Committee kindly put up following his passing in 2020 for the Rooney Leading Flat Jockey at the seven-day Summer Festival.

Multiple jockeys have won both the Rooney Flat and NH Championships over the years including Fran Berry, Billy Lee, Donnacha O’Brien, Colin Keane, Shane Foley on the flat and Ruby Walsh, Paul Townend, Barry Geraghty, Mark Enright, Patrick Mullins to mention just a few.

Number of wins

The top jockey with the highest number of wins over the seven-day Galway Summer Festival under the Rules of Racing and National Hunt rules secures a cheque for €2,000 each and a commemorative Galway Crystal Trophy.

In the event of a tie over the seven days, both competitions are decided on winning prize money. In the early years of the competition, I can vividly recollect we presented TVs, camcorders, Newbridge cutlery, VHS video recorders, cine cameras, original paintings and even Royal Tara China tea sets to each of the winning jockeys.

I can also remember giving a prize to Kevin Manning, another super flat ‘pilot’ who secured the highest number of placed horses on one occasion when we also had such a prize.

In the early years, the jockeys’ competition was held over the full year of racing at Ballybrit. Now it is just run over the Summer Festival meeting. We are delighted to continue our long-standing partnership with Galway Races, whose innovative committee strives to promote the experience of racing at Galway year after year.

I was elected as an ordinary member of the Turf Club in 2005 and function as a voluntary steward on several racetracks particularly in the west of Ireland. It is great to give something back to this great industry.

I have met so many super people over the years from my involvement in this sport. I will continue to do so if my health allows me to do so.