SHE’S A Nation winning at the Curragh last Friday evening was a dream come true. To be honest, we are still pinching ourselves. As a small operation just starting off, to have our first winner at the Curragh on Irish Derby weekend was beyond anything we could have imagined. Although the filly had been working well and we gave her a strong each-way chance, to go and win like she did certainly surprised us.

I am from a racing background. My two uncles were big into pony racing years ago. I did a lot of pony racing right up until my late teens. My brother John (Devine), who is five years older than me, taught me how to ride. He started off with the pony racing as well but had moved on to work for Dessie Hughes by the time I got seriously into it.

During secondary school, it was mostly the pony racing end of it with me. I rode out all the flappers for my uncles after school. They were mostly ex-racehorses, so I was riding thoroughbreds from an early age. First, I’d ride out for one uncle then, when those were done, I’d head over to my other uncle. I had plenty of rides in pony racing but not that much success. I was fairly tall and weight was always a problem.

After finishing school, I actually took a break from racing for a few years. I went away and got a trade as a plumber. My wife Donna and I have been together since we were very young - over 30 years now. With a young family, we knew that working with horses wasn’t going to pay the bills. I had almost nothing to do with racing for four or five years. Slowly but surely I was dragged back in. Not that I took much dragging, as the bug never really leaves you.

Stable amateur

In 2005/’06, I got my amateur licence. I started off with Pat Gillespie in Armagh, before moving on to James Lambe. I then spent a few years riding out for Stuart Crawford. I rode in point-to-points for Warren Ewing, Ian Ferguson and all the lads in the north. I later moved down south to ride as stable amateur to Tom Mullins.

During those years, apart from Tom, I rode for Tony (Mullins), Mag (Mullins) and the Shark (Hanlon). Although I enjoyed riding as an amateur, down the line I knew that I wanted to train horses. With that in mind, I tried to go into as many different yards as I could, in order to pick up experience. I rode a handful of winners as an amateur, the highlight being a double at Tyrella in March 2017. Around Covid time, I retired from race-riding.

For a number of years before retiring I had a kept a few point-to-point horses of my own. Back in 2010 I trained Super Arnie to win his point. That was special as it was on February 27th, the date of my wife’s birthday. Once I stopped riding, I went to work for Wilson Dennison and Colin McKeever. I was employed as assistant trainer to Colin.

New beginnings

I had a bad accident three years ago when a horse flipped over on me, shattering my pelvis. I was off for over a year. When I eventually got back on my feet, I felt it was time for a fresh start. We moved back down to Carlow, where I got a job riding out for Barry Fitzgerald. I also got in contact with Willie Mullins, who very kindly sent me a few horses to pre-train. I am very appreciative of that. I had known the Mullins family for many years, having worked for Tom and ridden amateur alongside Patrick.

Earlier this year, after I finished in Barry Fitzgerald’s, the Shark offered me a job riding out for him. I also rented a separate yard from him, which is about a mile and a half away from his main yard. In March of this year, I did the trainers’ course and in May I got my licence. I knew P.J. Kavanagh, the owner of She’s A Nation, having ridden the filly’s half-brother Rock Of Ireland in Barry Fitzgerald’s. I was asked to break her as a two-year-old before putting her away.

From the word go, she was always very professional. She always gave us the sign that she could be something special. Although it wasn’t a long term plan to make her debut at the Curragh, P.J. likes to have a runner on those big days. We decided to put her into the maiden last Friday night and let her take her chance. However, given the way she had been working at home, we were confident that she had at least a decent each-way chance.

Shocking win

To be honest, we were very surprised by how easily she won. When Luke (McAteer) was travelling so strongly two furlongs out that he could afford to take a look around, I knew that we had a live chance. However, it was the manner in which she picked up and went away from the rest that really surprised me.

The phone has been burning up since the race. There has been a lot of interest in She’s A Nation, especially to go to America. To be honest, I am just training her away with her next race in mind. I leave the rest up to P.J.

Training my first ever winner at the Curragh on such a big weekend has helped raise our profile. We are just a small operation.

My wife Donna and son Darryl are a huge help in the yard. As is Matty Rigney who rides out for us. My other son Eoin lives in the north but is a great help whenever he can. We only have a handful of horses in at the moment but hopefully we can build it up slowly. We showed with She’s A Nation that we can train a nice horse and ready one first up. Hopefully her win will help establish our name and lead to further success in the years ahead.

Rory was in conversation with John O’Riordan.