ANYONE involved with having a horse in training will tell you that it’s hard to remember a more expensive time to be an owner. When running costs have risen at a rate that isn’t in alignment with prize money rewards, it can make patience be even harder to show when results are not going to plan.

That is part of what makes a marvellous summer for one set of connections with a well-campaigned veteran all the more sweet. They have been remarkably patient.

National Hunt racing in the summer months doesn’t always yield rousing results with old favourites, but the 13-year-old Fr Gilligansvoyge has been nothing short of a revelation in recent months. It’s not all that long ago that the merits of introducing a mandatory retirement age for racehorses was discussed by some, yet John Carr’s summer standing dish, owned by Richard Farrell, absolutely laughs in the face of that suggestion.

It cannot be said that many horses climb 22lb in the handicap over the course of three months. It is surely virtually unheard of to do that at age 13, while closing in on their 80th lifetime start. So it deserves some note of recognition when that is exactly the picture that has unfolded for Carr’s bang-in-form chaser this summer.

While never achieving a rating higher than the 90s, the stalwart by Yeats has always had a bit of character about him and consistently turned up at the races season after season - even when in the face of long droughts between wins at times.

Having taken until his 42nd lifetime start to win his first race at the age of 10, an adjacent maiden for five-year-olds and upwards at Borris House, he took that taste for victory on board and captured the Bishopscourt Cup at the 2023 Punchestown Festival on his very next start; both wins coming under Pat Taaffe.

It took another 29 runs (and a total of 1,142 days) in the wilderness before he regained the winning thread again this summer at Downpatrick in a handicap chase. Many would have thrown in the towel with him before that point, but then again, Carr had already shown the patience of 2,399 days (more than six and a half years) from when he bought Fr Gilligansvoyge in 2016 to recording a first success.

“I bought him as a three-year-old for €3,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland August Store Sale,” Carr tells me this week.

“David Fitzgerald from Limerick and myself were working together at the sales that day and he wanted him as well, so we ended up tossing for him. I got the toss and came home with this lad. He bought the next one at the ring - he told me he ended up useless, unfortunately! That’s how it goes and that’s how it started with this lad.”

Marked resurgence

The obvious question on everyone’s lips is: what has sparked this summer turnaround with Fr Gilligansvoyge at 13? Having only won twice in the nearly nine years from his debut in September 2017 to this season, he has completely caught fire in recent months.

The fast-ground specialist hasn’t finished out of the prize money in any of his 10 starts and has won three times in just three months, collecting at Downpatrick, Tramore and Kilbeggan.

Despite climbing from a handicap rating of 68 in May to now being assessed at 90, he is still very much knocking on the door. His form figures read an extremely healthy 442132112.

It would be easy to assume a significant tweak to the veteran’s training, but Carr insists there has been no major regime change whatsoever.

“This horse is getting the same feeding and the same training that he always got!” Carr quips.

“Occasionally, we go with him to Laytown to the beach and this year he’s probably gone a little more often than before. Some of the boys who work with me love the beach and push me to go more often than I like - it’s a good hour’s drive from me so it can be a bit of a nuisance.

“That’s the only thing I can say that’s been different about him now at 13. Nothing else has changed.”

Never too old

This mighty summer spell serves as a further reminder that horses can keep going long into their careers once still showing the right signs. After all, it was only at Roscommon in 2019 that 16-year-old See Double You became the oldest horse to win on the track in Ireland since The Ladys Master struck for Matthew Duggan and Frank Berry in 1987.

“I’ll tell you what, we discussed retiring him on numerous occasions,” Carr explains.

“Next thing, he’d have a good run and we’d keep him going for another while. He must be listening to us when he hears us talking about him!

“He’d finish third and you have another go, then when you have another conversation about him, he might go out and finish second the next day. He keeps coming back every year and you solider around with him.

“Up until a year and a half ago when I hurt my back, I was riding him every day myself. He’s very quiet to ride and everyone loves him. He’s a good lead horse. You’d see him as a bit of a character in the stable. He kind of has the mentality of a half-bred horse, really. It’s nice to have him around the place.”

The grade he’s racing at means campaigners like Fr Gilligansvoyge won’t often make the headlines, but he is a fine example of what horses can achieve while still in rich form in the latter stages of their careers.

Consider this: only one horse has won more races over jumps than him this season - the handicap blot Timurshah. And that dual Galway Festival scorer was born in the same year that Carr’s star was entering his fifth season on the track.

If that type of longevity isn’t something worth celebrating, it’s hard to know what is. A doff of the cap is due to the bould Fr Gilligansvoyge.

WHAT a blow it was this week to learn of Galopin Des Champs’ passing at the age of 10, so shortly after his retirement from racing was announced.

Such was his consistent levels of brilliance for several seasons, it could be said that he lived in a space that the majority of top stayers only visit on rare occasions.

Some horses come to the fore with immense talent. Others make their name with displays of courage. Galopin had both in equal measure, and he demonstrated those traits repeatedly. That longevity is something that can only be said about the true greats of the game.

The thoughts of so many racing followers this week have been with the Turley family, the entire Mullins operation - especially his partner in crime, groom Adam Connolly - but also Ruby Walsh and his daughter Isabelle, who must have been richly looking forward to Galopin Des Champs’ newest chapter in eventing.

His untimely death is a further reminder of how unpredictable life can be with horses - half-tonne animals with the potential to do themselves harm at any juncture, no matter how well supervised they are by top, top professionals like he had around him right up to his final moments.

The greatest tributes paid to some only come after they are no longer with us, though the same cannot be said about Galopin Des Champs.

He was cherished by National Hunt fans, and they made their voices heard on a host of occasions - especially late in his career.

For plenty of Grade 1 horses nowadays, the season can feel like a series of dress rehearsals before the Cheltenham Festival. With Galopin, his rock-and-roll, take-the-bull-by-the-horns style of running around Leopardstown and Punchestown ensured essentially each of his 12 Grade 1 wins felt like a big deal.

More often than not, the dual Cheltenham Gold Cup hero put on a show, and the crowds duly responded.

He leaves us with days to live long in the memory.