TAHIYRA winning the Matron Stakes at Leopardstown on Champions Weekend was a memorable day for everyone at Gilltown Stud. As an employee of the operation owned by His Highness the Aga Khan, I was delighted to be associated with that filly. Having helped break Tahiyra as a yearling and care for her during a short break back at Gilltown in recent weeks, it was great to see her win the fourth Group 1 race of her career.

I grew up around horses and racing, as my father, Tony, always had a leg in a couple of syndicates. Although I played soccer and rugby with CBC Monkstown and was into athletics, I learned how to ride at a local equine centre, before getting a pony of my own.

From there, I did a small bit of hunting and low level show jumping. At the age of 11, I went down to the Curragh, where I started a weekend job with Tony and Ber Redmond. They were two incredible people who took me in and treated me like a son.

I spent as much time as possible down in their yard over the next five or six years, eventually going full-time with Tony after my Leaving Certificate.

Before that, at 16, I took out my amateur licence and rode my first winner, Prince Lyphard, in a maiden hurdle at Kilbeggan, while still in school. After I went full-time, Tony used me a lot more on his bumper horses and I started to really get going.

In 1991, as Tony began to wind down, I went to Dessie Hughes. I was only there a short time before I rode Paget to win a maiden hurdle at Gowran Park for my old boss. On the back of that win, Johnny Harrington, who had the fourth in that race, Oh So Grumpy, recommended me to Jenny Pitman in the UK. Dessie felt that this was a good opportunity and advised me to give it a go.

Although I went over to Jenny Pitman during the 1993/’94 season, I was very young and just didn’t enjoy being away from home. I came back to Ireland after a few months, taking up a role as amateur with Mick O’Toole. While I wasn’t riding every day, I was riding most weeks; certainly more frequently than I had been up to that point. I had a couple of rides for Edward O’Grady. who later asked me would I come down to ride out for him.

Took off

Shortly after, I rode a few winners and things took off from there. In all, I ended up spending 10 years working for Edward. It was a golden era to be involved with the yard with horses of the calibre of Sound Man, Ventana Canyon, Time For A Run, Mucklemeg, Nick Dundee and Ned Kelly in training. I rode all of those horses in their work at one time or another; a real privilege.

On the track, I was fortunate enough to win a Champion Hunter Chase on Sheltering, who I also partnered into fourth in the Foxhunters at Aintree. That latter experience, riding over the National fences, was undoubtedly the biggest buzz I got race-riding.

I also won bumpers on three horses who went on to better things; namely Back In Front, Take Control and Cloone River. Slavica winning the Ulster National and Mighty Mandy winning on her bumper debut at Cork for Michael Halford were other wins that stood out. In all, I rode over a 100 winners under rules and another 29 in point-to-points.

Just by pure chance, I found myself running a successful breaking/pre-training business even before I had retired from the saddle. A friend of mine had asked me to look after a horse of his for a summer while it was out of training. He then asked if I would go a step further and ride it out before it went to Dessie Hughes.

A week after I sent it back, Dessie rang me to ask would I pre-train a few for him. Through that connection, I ended up doing a similar job for Cathal Ryan of Swordlestown Stud. Before I knew it, I had 30 horses and the business had taken off!

I continued to race-ride for another couple of seasons before I took the decision to concentrate on the pre-training. During my last year race-riding, I rode out for David Wachman in the mornings; an educating experience.

Throughout my career, having ridden out in a number of different yards, I always tried to learn wherever I went. David was very good to me, teaching me so much about business, as well as horsemanship.

Dessie Hughes, who was instrumental in getting me off the ground with the pre-training and he was such a great man to deal with. He was always so encouraging and filled me with confidence. I pre-trained the likes of Central House and Oulart for him, while Swordlestown Stud sent me horses of the calibre of Leinster, Cork All Star and The Railway Man.

Training

Following Cathal Ryan’s untimely death at the age of 48, I went on to train for a few seasons. While Amalfitano’s win in a listed novice hurdle at Limerick in 2006 was the biggest success I enjoyed over that period, it was a maiden hurdle winner at Tramore four years later that provided me with my best day in racing.

Not only was Mr Dazza owned by my wife Anna but our two kids Katie and Sam were in attendance that afternoon. They were too young to remember me race-riding, so it was special to have them both there for that family success. I held the licence up until the end of the 2012/’13 season, at which point I joined Gilltown Stud as manager of the training yard.

I run the latter assisted by former apprentice jockey Barry Walsh, together with a team of five riders. We break and pre-train yearlings, as well as oversee horses that are either on a break or returning from injury. John Garrett in Gilltown and Anthony Toft in Sallymount look after the foals/weanlings before they are moved to Sheshoon and there they are looked after by Christina Doran and Davy Moore and then on to David Geoghegan.

The latter drives them on long reins and teaches them the basics. They are then sent to us for the final leg stage of their education before going out to trainers. Pat Downes, the Manager of Gilltown Stud, is a brilliant man to work for. He lets you get on with the job, while at the same time, always being just a phone call away if needed. Pat keeps us informed of the horse’s progress even after they leave the stud, so we always feel very much part of a team.

When taking a job at such a high profile stud as Gilltown, the hope has to be that one day you will come across a Derby winner. In 2016, we were fortunate enough to witness Harzand, a colt we broke and pre-trained here at the stud, win both the Epsom and Irish Derby.

His wins in those classics were without doubt the highlight of my time at Gilltown to date. Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Tarnawa was a mare that was broken and pre-trained here, while her half-sister Tahiyra has won an Irish Guineas this year.

Sea Of Class, an Irish Oaks winner for Mrs Tsui in 2018, was also broken and pre-trained at Gilltown Stud. With roughly 60 yearlings each season passing through our hands, there is always hope that at least one can go on to emulate those that have gone before them.

Karl Wyse was in conversation with John O’Riordan