MICHELLE Howard is one of the best known people on Irish racecourses and yet many readers won’t know her name even though they will have spotted her on racedays.

As stableyard manager at Dundalk, Fairyhouse, Downpatrick, Bellewstown and even Laytown, Michelle is out of the public’s sight most of the time but she also is part of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board’s security team and can regularly be seen escorting winners from the parade ring to the veterinary box.

From Stamullen, Michelle says she has been going racing “since I was in a pram”. Her father Des worked for John Oxx Snr and provided Michelle with her earliest racing memories. “My dad and Paddy Whelan trained a very good chaser named Siobhan’s Gold in the late 1970s and early 80s. John Harty used to ride her. I don’t remember her running but I remember the excitement of it.”

There is racing on both sides of her pedigree. Padraig Beggy is her first cousin and Michelle had the honour of escorting Padraig’s Irish Derby winner Sovereign from the parade ring. Hooked on racing from an early age, Michelle spent much of the 1990s working with friend and breeder Martin Finnegan, whose horses, including Royal Suzy and Royal South, were trained by John Murphy, Owen Weldon, Michael Cunningham and Des McDonogh.

Leading up

“I had a stable pass from 1995 and I just started leading up for lots of different trainers. John Kiely gave me my first winner. He and Marian remain very good friends of mine. Charles Byrnes was also very good to me, and Joe Crowley and Jimmy Coogan too. I did that for years and loved every minute of it.”

A couple of highlights come to her mind. The day in 2002 that Michelle led in Royal Suzy a winner at Fairyhouse with Sean Cleary on board has become more special with the passing years. And her winners for Oliver Brady are never to be forgotten.

“Oliver was unique, people loved him. When I had a winner for him I never had an experience like it. People were running off the stands to see the show that Oliver would put on in the parade ring. Rita Shah would be there trying to calm him down. It was a great buzz.”

New job

Then in 2008 Michelle was offered the job of stableyard manager at Fairyhouse. The role primarily involves allocating a box to every declared runner but there is lots more to it, including checking water, shavings and even giving out sponsors’ jackets to the grooms. Michelle now does the same job at five tracks. When we spoke on Wednesday evening, Michelle was just in the door from a long day at Dundalk and was starting work on the Friday roster.

“With health screening now, we have to be at the track three and a half hours before the first race. I’m on duty until the last horse is in. Once I tell the vets ‘everything is in’ I am finished. If I am wearing my IHRB security hat then I stay until we microchip the last winner. The stewards can’t give the winner alright until we radio that in. It’s not unusual to have a 13-hour day before you are home.”

Michelle says racing is her life and the racing community is her second family. As someone who likes to express her emotions, she finds it frustrating having to maintain social distance from her many friends on the racing circuit.

“I’m a hugger and I miss being able to meet and greet people in the way I normally would. It’s not the same, you’re sitting in your car having your lunch. You can’t say to someone ‘let’s go get a cup of tea on our break’.”

She recalls Mountain Fox winning at Leopardstown in July for 79-year-old Frank Oakes and his wife, Carmel. Nobody there to congratulate them. “Frank and Carmel are great friends and I found it very hard not to be able to give them a hug. Without owners and the crowds, the atmosphere is not as good. It’s very strange in the winner’s enclosure nowadays. The connections can hardly get in together for a photo.” We wonder what Oliver Brady would have made of it. The shirt would have come off but the mask would have to stay on!

Dundalk was also the scene of Michelle’s saddest day at the races. On March 1st, 2019, her close friend and IHRB security team colleague Willie Buckley died suddenly in the parade ring. Michelle travelled with him to the hospital and says he will never be forgotten. “If I ever won something, I would dedicate it to Willie. He was my best friend at the races.”

Another great friend is Olive Gaule, who is married to Joseph Murphy, son of trainer Joe Murphy. The day Swamp Fox won the 2017 Naas November Handicap has to be mentioned, she says. Michelle can rattle off winners and pedigrees to match any racing professional, and she is also known as the sport’s search engine, as she has a reputation for helping people find lost property.

On her days off she can be found watching bloodstock sales online. She follows everything by Galileo and says Australia’s progeny are her new obsession. But the people in racing mean more to her than the horses.“I have made fantastic friends in racing and I don’t know anything else.”