How did you get involved in the racing industry?

I think in around 2009 or 2010, we had a point-to-point horse with Willie Murphy that won mare of the year in the point-to-point circuit called Burnt Oil Babe. That started the bug then, I had horses for a long time since and went seven or eight years without a winner. I met Philip (Rothwell) about 20 years ago when he was building his house. He bought his sewage tank for the house from me! I didn’t speak to him then for another six or seven years, and then I ran into him after the Thyestes Chase in Gowran seven or eight years ago.

We started a racing club then and every horse that we had with Philip from that point on has either been placed or won. The last winner we had was Berliet Express, he’s gone to England now. We got Duffys Hodey around the same time but he had a lot of bad luck with injuries and niggles and everything that could possibly go wrong. He’s matured now and he’s really taken off this season.

How did the syndicate come together?

It was all arranged by Philip. He put it all together and there’s four of us in it. Most of us try to get to the races as often as we can with a runner. Whether it’s in Downpatrick or Gowran, we try to go. They’re handicappers but we get a lot of fun out of it. For us, a handicap win is as good as a Grade 1 for the big owners. As the local pubs will know, a handicap win for us is probably celebrated more than a Grade 1!

What did you think of Duffys Hodey’s run at Punchestown?

Because we had so many years of not winning, things are a little bit more controlled than we were in our earlier days. This year we’ve noticed Duffys Hodey has started to stay, so even though he needs to be shaken up to get going, it doesn’t seem to cut in as quick as it used to. Tiernan (Power Roche, jockey) said he seemed to like passing horses after his win at Punchestown so we’re still not sure what his maximum trip could be. We’ll leave that decision to Philip anyway.

Have you got any race targets in mind?

Philip thinks that we were very fortunate to win that race because it fell apart for us really. He was up in grade as well so we’re not sure how much more we can push him. I suppose we’ll have to stay going until we get to the end of his handicap mark. I could imagine he’ll look for something similar, and smaller fields might be an angle for him. It’s all up for play, we ask the questions but we don’t tell Philip where to go. There’s no point in having a trainer and then making the decisions yourself.

How did you end up buying Duffys Hodey?

All of the horses that I’m involved with are trainer-led. Philip is very good to get a nice horse for handy money. We might be working off the ‘buy and sell’ but we’re getting a few winners.

What other horses are you involved in?

We have Katherine with a different syndicate over in Adrian Sexton’s and she’s won twice this season as well. Space Warrior won a juvenile hurdle for Tom Mullins and C’est Rien won a handicap chase for Tom as well. It’s just Tom’s wife Helen and I in those two. For somebody that only had one winner in 10 or 11 years, I’ve had a mad season. We had a point-to-point winner two weeks ago called Revolut Ned. There’s a story attached to that with another syndicate but you wouldn’t have enough paper to go there!

Is there anything that you think the industry could improve?

To be honest, we enjoy it all. We’re purely in it for the days out, we wouldn’t have handicappers if we were trying to make money. We love the days out and if the horse was running four times in a week we’d try and make it all four times. If it won four times in a week, we’d be alcoholics! When they win we enjoy ourselves.

What advice would you give someone that wanted to make a start in ownership?

I’m in a few racing clubs and one with a lot of members. My only advice would be to get three or four friends and keep it small. Especially if it’s a local horse, a car-load is enough. I think when it’s a smaller group people will always pull together. We love the days out and most of us aren’t into golf or anything like that so we’d be looking up the entries every week to see what afternoon we could get away. That’s why I like the clubs and syndicates, it’s not a one-man show. Sharing the experience is the most important part. We learned to appreciate the wins after the few years without a winner.

How do you keep a level head when you’re putting money into horses that aren’t winning?

If Duffys Hodey has proved one thing, it’s that you’ve got to have patience. When they reach a certain level you have to reinvest in new stock as well. It’s a never ending cycle of expense and I appreciate that you have to keep putting the few pounds in.