HORSE racing for me was not something I grew up knowing much about. Being from a small town in Scotland, it wasn’t a popular interest.

However, I can remember from a very young age going to the bookmakers with my mum to put a few bets on for my grandad.

My father was the one who introduced me to horses at the age of four. He always thought horses were beautiful and probably thought himself as a bit of a cowboy. I started with lessons and my own love grew from there.

I was lent a couple of horses growing up to my teens and met a lot of people along the way who showed me the ropes of riding and looking after them too. I eventually got my own pony at 12 years old.

I had plenty of experience and fun with him and went on to do some show jumping competitions. The interest in racing came via the livery yard where I kept my pony. The yard owner had taken me to an old racing friend’s yard some weekends to put me up on some of the racehorses; basically, learn how to hold my reins, balance with shorter stirrups; an overall different way of riding. I thoroughly enjoyed it and kept going back for more.

Horses

Secondary school was never something I enjoyed. When all my fellow school friends were working hard and thinking of their futures, all I thought about was horses.

I stayed in school and did my GCSEs but soon decided I wanted to be fully involved in horses, so I went to the racing school in Doncaster.

The four-month course was one of the best times of my life - I took it all in and made friends for life. After the college course, I went to Keith Dalgleish’s yard in Carluke, Scotland.

Keith’s stables were only 15-20 minutes from my home, so it was the ideal place for me to go and work while still being able to grow up around my family and friends.

At Dalgleish’s yard, I started out as a groom and rider, and it was my keen interest and hard work that allowed me to climb up the ladder of responsibility.

When I finally decided to leave, I was well fit for pretty much any job in a busy racing yard, such as riding out to a high standard, taking care of large numbers of horses and staff, feeding, medications, attending racing and everything else that goes on. I took a lot of what I know today from that yard.

Learn and grow

After my first job in racing, I went on to work in a lot of other yards. Every yard I went to I continued to learn and grow and also enjoyed making new friends/connections.

It was actually in Dalgleish’s yard I first met Leanne (Breen) and it was after a relationship grew, I decided to go back to Ireland with her and see what over the water had to offer me.

Together we went to Willie McCreery’s yard on the Curragh, where we spent about a year. After Willie’s, we went on to England for another adventure.

We set up in York at David O’Meara’s yard. We spent a good couple of months there and it was great to work with some fantastic group-winning horses.

We then decided to go back to her home town and live there for a while, so we rode out for Co. Armagh trainer Marshall Watson.

Next, we headed for Sydney and worked for trainer, James Cummings. It was a completely different way of racing to what we knew and we had an amazing time in the sun but we always found ourselves being drawn back to Ireland.

I went to Eddie Lynam’s in Co. Meath when we came home from Oz, while Leanne was setting up her own yard. I drove up and down to Lynam’s to ride out and it was one of the best places I worked.

The yard was full of very good horses past and present and Eddie was always a great man to have a knowledgeable conversation with.

Full time

Once Leanne had enough horses in, she asked me come in full-time with her. She had initially bought three horses on her own to get going.

It only took a few months before we managed to get the first winner on the board and it was at our local track, Dundalk, with a horse named Latchet.

Over the couple of years, we have been working extremely hard to build the yard up and train winners. For two mid-20s young women, it has been eye-opening work but it is something we both are very passionate about.

Leanne herself is very driven by success and I think it’s her mindset that gets her up every day to do what she does with her training yard. She has built a sort of horse haven in Warrenpoint.

The horses ride out with a view of the Mourne Mountains and inhale the smell of the sea every day. The yard does very well with horses coming out of big yards who need that change of scenery and a regular trip to the beach is good for any horse and rider.

We enjoyed our biggest success to date with That’s Mad, who won the Joe McGrath Premier Handicap at the Curragh. He relishes the small training operation that we have, although he made sure we were on the ball with him. The clue of his nature was in his name!

Grow the yard

For the future, Leanne is pushing to grow the yard. At the moment, we have a beautiful set-up that caters for around 20 horses and we hope to continue to grow.

For years, it has just been me and Leanne working away, riding out, mucking out, taking the horses racing, attending sales, yard maintenance and everything else that comes with the job.

It would be a different life for us with double the horses and to have staff in the yard to help even out the work load. Leanne and I got married in September 2022 and a honeymoon would be nice to have while we are still young!

We are always searching for good horses but anyone who is in the same position as us knows it’s not that easy. Up until now, we have mainly bought older handicappers to simply get the winners on the board.

As we are growing in numbers and knowledge, we are excited to start buying young fresh horses and hoping to find the horses of the future!

Aili Breen was in conversation with John O’Riordan