LIZ Doyle took a chance entering Ballybawn Belter in the Paddy Mullins Mares Handicap Hurdle at the Dublin Racing Festival.

The mare was rated just 104 so it was a near certainty that she’d be racing from out of the handicap, and at worst, she could have been all of 10lbs ‘wrong’ at the weights. That is the type of thing that could make you look silly. But Doyle took a calculated risk, reviewed the situation again at the entry stage and then declared Ballybawn Belter.

As it transpired, she was just 2lbs out of the weights and came through under Simon Torrens to win well. And, on one of the biggest days of the Irish racing calendar, Doyle was the only trainer other than Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott to walk into the winner’s enclosure.

It was just over 14 years since she first walked into the winner’s enclosure at Leopardstown after Penny’s Bill gave her a first signature race success in the Pierse Hurdle. Funnily enough, he was 6lbs wrong at the weights at declaration stage, so it was a big call to run him as well, but then the top-weight Newmill was declared a non-runner and Penny’s Bill came into the handicap proper.

He duly won and caused a mini furore after. So much so, they changed the rules regarding non-runners and the race weights largely due to those circumstances.

Doyle had been training on a smaller scale for the best part of a decade at that stage, mixing it with riding in point-to-points and on the track. She rode 56 winners between the flags, claiming the champion lady riders’ title four times, while she had 27 winners on the track, before Penny’s Bill elevated her to a new level as a trainer.

It wasn’t a magic switch moment, with a flow of owners coming through the gates, but it gave her the confidence that she could do it on the biggest stage and she has more than held her own since - she will be in her 25th season with a training licence next term.

She trains in Crossabeg, Co Wexford, one of the most racing/point-to-pointing dense areas in Ireland, with a strong business acumen to the core of everything she does. She has the assiduous task of trying to source that good horse, risking her own capital to secure it, rearing and developing the animal herself and often having to sell on to the bigger fish just as the fruit ripens.

When Doyle has been able to hold on to good horses, she has regularly produced the goods. Rich Revival, Last Goodbye, Bois De Clamart and Cayd Boy have all been sent out to win big-pot, graded handicaps.

There is no area in the jumps game she hasn’t turned her hand to. She had Al Ferof and Cheltenian in bumpers before they were sold on to Britain. She had Allaho and Fakir D’Oudairies in pre-training before they moved on to Willie Mullins and Joseph O’Brien. She won a point-to-point with Eklat De Rire before selling him on at the sales.

Everything needs to pay for itself. Doyle gave up on any romantic notions of shooting for the stars with horses. There has to be a realism. And yet, she’d back herself to succeed with any horse so there is always that bittersweet element when the good ones have to go.

I’d love to get that French three-year-old with a sexy profile that usually goes to Willie Mullins but I can’t afford them and I can’t attract people to buy that type of horse.

She could tell you all about that when she watched Al Ferof take a vintage renewal of the Supreme Novice Hurdle in 2011 and the very next day, Cheltenian scooping the Champion Bumper.

Of course that is good for business but the dream situation is to be able to hold on to a few of the good ones.

“Do you know, I’ve never had an order for a horse in my life,” Doyle says, thoughtfully. “I don’t know if I ever will. It would always be buy it, break it, wing it yourself and if it’s no good, move it on to something else and if it’s nice, try and get people in by vouching for the horse. That’s always the way it has been for me.

“I am not the most confident person but I’ve always had a great relationship with risk and found that part of the game okay. I can buy a horse on spec myself and I’d be more than happy to back my own judgement.

“I’ve always been comfortable with that, I’ve always been happy to roll the dice with something if I liked it. The game is all about hoping that the numbers come your way, that’s what keeps you in business.”

That Doyle is still sitting at the table of racing roulette is testament that her judgement is savvy but the self confidence issue she mentions is both surprising and intriguing.

“Yeah it’s not easy and it never has been for me, to be honest with you,” she says, in reply. “I came back from England when I was young and I had bad hair and even worse skin and I just wasn’t a confident person. That is probably a normal thing when you’re in your teens or 20s but it’s something I’ve always had to work at.

“I don’t drink either. I’ve just never been that confident person. I think that is a huge element of being a successful trainer. Willie and Gordon are superb at it - engaging with people, entertaining people, going out eating and drinking and whatever. That has never come natural to me.

“I’ve always found the training and sourcing of horses okay. Over the years we’ve proved with the people I deal with in France that we can get the horses but it’s just getting people to engage with you to say, ‘Yeah a journey with her would be okay and she can take this horse to as good a place as anyone can.’

“We’ve had some great horses in this yard. I trained Al Ferof, Cheltenian, Allaho and Fakir D’Oudairies all for various stages of their early career. But you know, it’s a big step to actually give someone the confidence to say, ‘Right, I’m going to spend whatever on this horse and I’m going to leave it with you.’ That is a huge thing to ask someone to do.

“You have to work at that and you have to be good at giving them confidence. It’s something that I haven’t been good at but hopefully I am getting better with a bit of experience and a bit of age and you work away from the kind of awkward young person socially, that didn’t drink and whatever. Hopefully you step away from that and winners like last Sunday week will make that a little bit easier.”

French connection

The French connection has always been there. Doyle works with Séamus Murphy, a bloodstock agent based in France, to source foals and yearlings that she can develop herself back in Wexford.

Of course she’d love to be coming in further down the line, sourcing that horse that won or hit the frame on debut at Auteuil, or won it’s AQPS race on debut, the exact type that ends up with Willie Mullins, but they’re simply not attainable cost-wise. And even at that, the prices of French National Hunt foals is rising as the ripple of the demand for top jumps horses hits everywhere.

“Séamus would buy a lot of foals for various people and he’s saying that the Doctor Dino and No Risk At All foals that were worth €30-40,000 are now at €45-50,000,” Doyle says. “All the other sires seem to have gone up as well and you’re wondering where does it come from?

“It’s most likely the demand from the pinhookers building their stock for the store sales, which is feeding the demand from the point-to-point guys who are feeling the demand for the top class National Hunt horses who just seem to be recession and pandemic proof. It’s amazing really.

“I’ve always been attracted towards the French breed. For me the whole essence of French success is the blend of speed that comes from the AQPS-winning mares. I think that speed has made these pedigrees so successful.

“Our system is a little bit different. Obviously I’d love to get that French three-year-old with a sexy profile that usually goes to Willie Mullins but I can’t afford them and I can’t attract people to buy that type of horse. So we go around and source foals when they’re a month, six weeks or two months old - basically buy them when they’re still on mares.

“Séamus is a huge help with this. He has got super contacts and all the breeders love him. He is probably one of the best judges of a foal, in what is the purest form of acting as a bloodstock agent - buying foals that become top class race horses. He’s superb.”

Without Limites, Farmix, Bois De Clamart, Al Ferof, Cheltenian and Flash De Touzaine were all French bred gems for Doyle but Le Vent D’Antan could have been the best of them all but for suffering a fatal injury when contesting the Grade 1 Flogas Novice Chase at Leopardstown in 2015.

“That was easily my worst day at the races,” Doyle says. “But I think I can deal with the setbacks better now. As you get older you do. I didn’t cope well with it at all when I was younger. I found it really hard to deal with tendon injuries and horses struggling.

“I always found it awful to relay bad news but I think you get better at that as you get older, you understand the risks a bit more and you learn to manage expectations with people.

“It’s knowledge of the game really, you just understand more how low a percentage chance of success you have with each horse.”

Arguably that percentage level of success has gone down further in recent years with the big owners concentrating their horses in a select number of yards in Ireland but Doyle isn’t one to begrudge that aspect of the modern racing game.

“Racing is like any other sport, the people who are exceptional at every element will rise to the top and they deserve the success they get,” she says.

“Willie and Gordon run amazing teams and they both started with nothing really, so their success is earned and shouldn’t be taken lightly.

“It’s up to everyone else to start finding the right horses, meeting the right people, find their own owners and make their own paths like the top guys have.

“I have no bad feelings towards them. Their owners are successful business people and they want to spend money where they think they can get a return and they’re following the upward trend. That is normal - good business people do that. It’s up to everyone else to find their own owners and step up their game so that is what we’re trying to do.”

Challenge

The challenge to make her business viable in one of the toughest racing jurisdictions in the world is motivation enough for Doyle. She has sent out nine winners so far this season, which may seem like a modest return but clearly not when she explains 50% of her stock will be sold every year.

“It is always important that our young horses do well in this regard,” she explains. “Of course we want horses to compete in the better races but we have to sell to keep everything going, to be able to go and buy more foals and yearlings.

“I’ve a farm to run as well. We’ve got cattle here. The whole thing needs to pay for itself. I don’t want to be one of these romantic National Hunt trainers that has no business plan or can’t go out and buy new stock every year.

“I’ve got a great team of staff, with my head lad James Rath, who’s been here probably longer than he can remember. He bought and sold Ballybawn Belter, and he is a huge part of the team.

“There is a huge draw on staff in Wexford - there are an awful lot of horses in training here. We’re always busy but you have to look after your staff as well, be as accommodating as you can and make the yard a good place to work.”

Ballybawn Belter and Simon Torrens jump the last on their way to winning the Paddy Mullins Mares Handicap Hurdle for Liz Doyle \ carolinenorris.ie

Remarkably, Doyle has never had a graded winner, but that is an anomaly she will surely correct soon.

“It’s about time I won one,” she says. “We’ve won loads of big handicaps but have yet to get over the line in a graded race. I suppose when you keep selling your best stock, it’s not going to be easy, it’s not rocket science.

“I don’t have sky high ambitions. I’m trying to keep the level of business good and keep everything looking right. That’s number one priority.

“Hopefully we can start being more fashionable and hanging on to some horses. It’s a tough environment but hopefully we can get there.”