LAST month, Goffs launched its new online sales platform GoffsGo to the market.

As the dedicated online sales executive heading up this new initiative, I am very much looking forward to overseeing its growth and development over the coming months and years.

A concept that has been in the planning for over 12 months, it offers vendors a unique opportunity to sell on their own terms.

Ever since I can remember, I have been going racing with my parents, or grandfather. I’m from Goresbridge, so the racecourse at Gowran Park is literally just five minutes up the road. Every time there was a meeting on, I went there. I’d say there were definitely a few half-days off school, especially during primary!

While my father wasn’t directly involved with horses, a lot of the lads he grew up with found jobs within the industry. My mother actually worked at Gowran Park for a time; dealing with the annual members badges which predated the scanned cards.

Despite plenty of days out at the races, I had no practical experience of horses until my mid-teens.

Pinhooked

At 16, when I was in fifth year in school, I got a part-time job working for local farmers Robert and Edward Prendergast. Although they primarily ran a dairy farm, the father and son always bred or pinhooked a few National Hunt horses.

Unfortunately neither of them are still with us anymore but I can safely say that without them I wouldn’t be where I am today. They taught me everything about handling horses, right down to the basics of putting on a bridle.

Working on the farm was hard graft but I was always learning. I was in and out of there for seven years, right through secondary school and college. I really developed an interest in the bloodstock side of racing while working for the Prendergasts.

New friends

While not many of my friends in secondary school shared my passion for racing, that all changed once I went to college. Studying for my Bachelor of Commerce in UCD, I met a core group of fellow students who came from a racing background.

I house-shared with Timmy Love, grandson of Irish Grand National winner trainer, Dot (Love). I was also very friendly with Sam Baker, Patrick Hickey and George Connolly. Through Timmy Love, I got to know Michael O’Sullivan and Sean Staples, who were both riding in point-to-points at the time.

Following on from my new found interest in bloodstock, I started reading through catalogues and learning more about pedigrees during those college years. After finishing my degree, I found myself at something of a loose end, so I ended up doing the sales from October to December.

Shortly after Christmas, George Connolly forwarded me an Instagram post from Jessica Harrington, who was looking for a race planner/owner communications person. I sent off my CV and it really just went from there.

Full-time job

In January 2023, I started my first full-time job in racing. As race planner, my role was to liaise with Mrs Harrington and Kate when it came to finding suitable targets for the horses.

Shane Foley was a huge help in that regard. He has an unbelievable grasp of the programme book and knew most of the races before they even came up. With a lot of well-bred fillies and mares in the yard, it was important to identify blacktype opportunities, be they at home, Britain, France, Germany or further afield.

Owner communications is fairly self explanatory; I did videos and stable updates for the owners at least fortnightly. The videos were then given voiceovers by Mrs Harrington or Kate, explaining where we were at with the horses and what their plans were.

Great experience

Having never worked in a racing yard previously, it was a great experience for me on a personal level. I couldn’t speak highly enough of the Harringtons as employers. They were wonderful people to work for and I enjoyed every minute.

I had grown up watching horses at the races but this was a unique insight into the inner workings of a racing stable. Due to my role liaising with the owners, I got to go watch horses work at the Curragh or racecourse gallops regularly. I was in that role from January 2023 until moving on to Goffs in November 2024.

Having gone racing on the Sunday, on my final day working for Mrs Harrington, I started with Goffs on the Monday. When I interviewed back in September, the GoffsGo concept was already in the advanced planning stages.

However, while the platform only went live last month, it was felt that I should come in early and get an overall insight into how Goffs operated.

My first day in the office coincided with the Autumn Yearling Sales. To be honest, I had no idea that so much went into each sale; in terms of catalogues, inspections and behind the scenes work. I am thankful that I got that opportunity to see how everything works. On July 7th GoffsGo was launched.

A week later, the platform went live for the first time. It was been very well received to date with plenty of positive feedback. We have had a lot of good support, with vendors sending us some really nice horses.

GoffsGo affords clients the opportunity to sell at the optimum time, taking the waiting out of selling horses online.

Ruairi was in conversation with John O’Riordan