MY interest in horses came from a neighbour of mine, John Doherty, who has passed away since. ‘The Doc’ as they called him, took me to a local riding school when I was four. It was run by Pat Doyle’s wife, Mary. I went hunting after that and used to go in and ride out for trainer Mark Molloy in the mornings before school. I left school at 16 and went to work for Danny O’Connell in Bansha.

I got the licence with Danny and rode a few winners point-to-pointing. Multeen Gunner was my first winner in the confined race at Kilfeacle. I spent a year and a half with Danny before I got the chance to go to Tom Hogan. I rode my first winner on the track for Tom; Premier Rebel in a bumper in Ballinrobe (July 2004).

I went to Tom as an amateur but after I rode a few winners, he encouraged me to turn professional. Best Away, also for Tom, was my first as a professional, at Thurles in February 2005. Later, towards the end of my career when I came back home to Tipperary, I also rode my last winner for Tom. He was a big cog in my career all the way along, and I’m very grateful to him.

After about 18 months with Tom, I teamed up with John Murphy in Cork. He was extremely good to me; very fair. I put in plenty of effort and he rewarded me. I was basically riding as stable jockey after a few months. He gave me great opportunities, allowing me to ride in graded races, even though I was still claiming 7lb. John had plenty of big-priced runners at the bigger festivals like Cheltenham and Aintree.

I was able to live out my dream, something I can never thank him enough for. We enjoyed four or five really good years together. It was only when John decided to concentrate more on the flat that I moved on to ride out for different trainers. I enjoyed a good rosy patch for a season and a half.

Highs and lows

Myself and John Joe Walsh had plenty of success together during that time. I ended up finishing second in the conditional jockeys’ championship, unfortunate to lose out by a single winner. On my first ride of the new season, I suffered a bad fall, which resulted in two broken vertebrae in my back. After that, I struggled to get back going again.

In 2012, I went back to Tom Hogan in the role of jockey/assistant trainer. Training was something I always had a fierce interest in. I would have been very hands-on in any yard that I worked in. I rode a winner for Tom at Ballinrobe in April 2013; a couple of days later, my career was over after a bad fall at Kilbeggan. I cracked two vertebrae and shattered one. I had to have two rods and 14 screws inserted in my spine.

My licence was taken off me and I wasn’t allowed to ride again. I was gutted when that happened. I was basically a lost soul for a long time. Fortunately, Gordon Lord Byron came on the scene while I was recovering. Tom Hogan allowed me travel with the horse to Hong Kong and Australia. I was delighted to have the opportunity; it was an incredible experience. I used my time well, opening my mind up to everything. I wasn’t afraid to ask questions of other trainers while on those travels.

I came home with the intention of getting into breeze-ups horses. In order to learn more, I spent two years between Paddy Twomey and Con Marnane. The main lesson I learned was that I couldn’t afford the fashionable sires! I took my beating and moved on. I teamed up with Pat Doyle. I told him that I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life, but I had a keen interest in the training of horses.

To be fair to Pat, he took a keen interest in me and took me under his wing. I always say to people that it was two acts of generosity that got me started training.

Pat Doyle allowed me use the boxes in his old yard, while Paddy Twomey, who was getting going on the flat, gave me a few National Hunt horses he had to move on. I ended up winning six races with a pair of those, Perpignan and The Blind Piper.

Training was meant to be a hobby; buying cheap horses and getting the best out of them. I never had any interest in taking out a licence for the track. It was only after I crossed paths with Sean Dalton that I thought about running a few in bumpers and hunter chases.

New beginnings

I only had a handler’s licence which allowed me to run horses in hunter chases when Shiroccosmagicgem won at Tramore in April last year. The following month, The Blind Piper was third at the Punchestown Festival. On the back of those runs, I decided to get the restricted licence out just before Christmas. My partner Mary (Murphy) had bought Sunny South West at the Goffs Sales.

Given that we were working off a small budget, we were surprised to get him cheap. It wasn’t long before he was showing us plenty at home. He is a lovely horse and everything just came so easy to him. When it came to running him in a point-to-point, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.

Johnny Barry took good care of him, so we have to be thankful to him that we have the horse we do. I tried to run him in a bumper at Christmas, but he had a dirty nose. The next time I planned to run him, he was coughing. I had always been telling Sean Dalton how highly I regarded Sunny South West. Sean made an offer for the horse and, as soon as he got Sean’s colours on his back, he turned the corner!

Being a keen going horse, we decided to drop Sunny South West in at Thurles and he flew home to finish fifth. We were quietly confident going to Clonmel on his next start, where he didn’t disappoint us. I know a lot of people thought I was mad running him in the Grade 1 bumper at Punchestown but in hindsight, he ran well off what was a slow pace.

After that, we decided to line him up for a bumper at Sean’s local track, Tipperary, which he won very easily. He will get a small break now, but as he loves summer ground, we will try to find a maiden hurdle for him in a few weeks. Hopefully, the plan would be to get to Galway with him. I have about 10 horses to run at the minute.

Training is still something of a hobby that I am trying to turn into a career. Mary and myself moved into our own place last February and we haven’t looked back since. The two of us are here in the yard and local lad Luke Barnet comes in to ride out. He recently took out his amateur licence and rides well. I’d like to support him as best I can and hopefully get him noticed.

Eddie was in conversation with John O’Riordan.