Your family has a lot of history in the industry, is that where your interest started?

Yeah, I suppose it goes back a long way, since I can remember to be honest. I grew up on a stud farm in Wicklow so racing was always on in the house. I can remember going to all of the big festivals like Galway, Punchestown and Leopardstown at Christmas.

My dad (Tony) owned a horse named Anaglogs Daughter who won the Arkle in 1980. My mother was four months pregnant with me at the time so the running joke in our house is that I led in my first winner when I was in my mother’s belly!

L’Antartique won the Jewson at the Cheltenham Festival in 2007 and then he won the Paddy Power Gold Cup at the November meeting the same year. It goes back a long way and there are loads more horses, we have a big family as well.

It was always my goal in life to be able to own my own horses. My brother Brian and I are business partners, best friends and we do everything together so now we have a few horses together and it’s great craic.

Did you make it to Punchestown for the race last weekend?

I’m actually away on holidays at the minute so I wasn’t there but I was watching it live on my phone. It was unfortunate but I always tell Shark (Hanlon, trainer) not to mind where I am or what I’m doing if he can find a race for the horse. Finding a race is the most important thing.

What was going through your head as you watched?

I just wanted him to stay. He ran at Kilbeggan and he needed the race. Young Paddy (Hanlon) gave him a great ride. I couldn’t have asked for more. We were up against a money-on favourite of Willie Mullins’ - they’re never easy to beat. Any time you get a winner you have to celebrate, they’re not easy to get so I couldn’t have been happier.

How did buying Topgun Simmy come about?

We go back a long way with Shark, about 25-odd years. He’s a good family friend and my dad was one of the first people to put horses with him. He had a horse that won a load of races on the flat. We always kept in touch. I have young kids so I always told Shark that when the day comes and they got a little bit older I’d get a horse with him.

I rang him one day and explained that Brian and I wanted to get involved. We met him at Christmas time at Leopardstown and of course, Shark being Shark, he had a horse. Then we said we might get a second one if he could find one and he spotted Topgun Simmy so we did a deal and we bought him. We’re delighted with him now.

It must have been a huge boost to his form finishing second to Brighterdaysahead?

He’s never let us down. He finished second in a Punchestown bumper and won nearly €20,000 that day. It was gas finishing second to Brighterdaysahead at Fairyhouse. Especially when you own a horse, you track everything they run against. His form, even from Kilbeggan, is incredible.

We always seem to be running against good horses. It’s not easy to win a race in Ireland, that’s for sure.

He’s a good ground horse and we’ve been a waiting with him for a long time, you know what the weather has been like! Hopefully we’ll get a few races over the summer and we’ll see how we go. We’ve got the ground I think we have his trip now as well.

What’s one piece of advice you’d give to someone wanting to start their ownership journey?

Honestly and realistically, you have to go into it with your eyes open. Write the money off. I always say to people “imagine putting it in the bin”. That’s the hardest thing, but at the end of the day I think we’re all kind of like school children hoping for the best with our horses, to get a day out for a bit of craic and share it with your friends, having a bit of fun along the way.

I would say plan appropriately for your finances to make sure that you’re not relying on any of that money and you can afford to do it, then you’ll just enjoy yourself and have a great time. We’ve been lucky because he’ll keep himself now for the next couple of years, anything else is a bonus. That’s the biggest thing really, a horse needs to earn its keep.

How do you approach making plans for your horses?

I’m not a racehorse trainer, everybody could be an expert but you leave the training to the horse trainer, and deciding when to run. By all means have discussions but we don’t get overly involved. We’d certainly speak to John (Shark), not every day or even every week but we just try to come up with a plan and then work back from that, just keep it simple.

We’re hoping to go to Galway so I told Shark “you find the race that’s best for the horse, don’t worry about me. When or wherever it is, I’ll be there” - that’s how we do it. The horses don’t run according to my schedule, we go according to theirs.