ESCAPING Thejungle became the latest horse to carry our family colours to success when winning at Bellewstown last month. With 135 years’ involvement in Irish racing, those black and gold silks are recognised as being the oldest active colours in use in this country. Since my great uncle Edward founded Corbal Lis Stud in the 1880s, many generations of the Delany family have raced horses in those silks.

My wife Lisa, who holds a keen interest in the history of the stud, noted that Escaping Thejungle was the 495th winner to come from the yard. With my father Eamon now holding the licence, and myself as assistant trainer, it is certainly an ambition of ours to reach the half century of winners before the end of the year.

I grew up in the racing yard at home. Dad had taken over the licence from my grandfather in 1978, with his first winner being Delmoss in the Troytown Chase. While I did all the usual ponies, pony club and hunting, I’d be the first to admit that I wasn’t a great rider. I was always that bit too heavy, so any thoughts of a career in the saddle were quickly dispelled. Throughout my school years I helped out around the yard and I always wanted to train horses one day.

However, when I finished secondary school in the late ‘80s, it just wasn’t viable at that time. I ended up working in the beef industry, holding various management positions for both the Goodman group and Dungannon Meats. I then had the great plan of making money by buying a couple of coffee shops. Unfortunately it wasn’t as simple as I had thought - just going in on a Friday evening to collect the money! After a while, I sold up the shops and returned home to become assistant trainer to Dad.

New horizons

While in that role, I stumbled on what would eventually become my main business. After struggling to find a cure for a horse with ulcers, I discovered that Bluegrass Horse Feeds had a product for that condition. However, when I went about ordering it, I found that none of the suppliers had ever even heard of it.

I ended up getting in touch with the company. During the course of our conversations, I mentioned that I knew a lot of people in the racing game and would be interesting in having a crack at selling their products. That wase been back around 2005/’06, so I am 20 years at it now. Over time it has grown into quite a large business, with clients not just in Ireland but the UK and mainland Europe. Trading as Delany Performance Feeds Ltd, we are now one of the leading suppliers in the country.

My wife Lisa is a great sounding board for me and often suggests I should become more social media-savvy to promote the business. But to be honest I prefer the old-fashioned face-to-face contact. I’d still meet clients at the races and sales but the days of going in to racing yards has passed since Covid. You are also met with big electronic gates at a lot of places now too. I am a believer in clients trying out the products for themselves, rather than reading about them online.

Winning any race is special but doing so at Bellewstown and Laytown more so. My family have been involved in the committees at both tracks for generations and I have been a director at each for close to 30 years. Bellewstown, which is also the oldest active racecourse in Ireland, celebrates its 300th anniversary next year. We will certainly be doing everything we can to have a winner at that particular meeting.

Race planning

At the start of every season Dad and myself go through the programme book and pick out the races at those two tracks that suit our horses. Fortunately, we have also found that our horses tend to run well there. Escaping Thejungle was winning for her third time at Bellewstown. We had been waiting for an ease in the ground for her all season. Luckily the rain arrived just in time and it was nice to give Colin Keane a winner in his quest for another jockeys’ championship. On the final day of the festival Birmingham Alabama gave us a second winner.

I was delighted with that also, as her owners Diane and Pat Flanagan have been major supporters of our yard for many years. I first met them at Shelbourne Park, through my mother. She trained greyhounds and we were in the company of the Flanagans when Diane and Pat mentioned that they would be interested in taking a leg in a horse. I didn’t let the grass grow! Although the first few that they had with us were slow, they showed patience and are now being rewarded. Birmingham Alabama won her fourth race at Bellewstown and Laurie Blue won her maiden hurdle at Roscommon recently.

Ours is a small family operation. There’s my dad, me, and Lisa, who is a great help around the yard and at the races alongside Emma, our head lass. Jack, our exercise and yard man, is assisted by Meryem, who comes in to ride out. My brother Mark oversees all areas of paddock management and produces excellent hay and haylage every year.

We train the horses on the beach and they all get five to 10 minutes in the sea every day. It’s so important, not just for their legs but for their heads and general wellbeing. With close to 500 winners coming out of Corbal Lis Stud, it has to be working.

Alan was in conversation with John O’Riordan.