How did you get involved with racing?

There was always talk of racing in the house, and my grand-aunt owned the winner of the Galway Plate back in 1971. An uncle of mine had horses years ago with Frank Ennis. I was at ponies when I was younger, but I grew out of that.

Friends of mine got involved with point-to-pointers, so I got involved with them. We had a few winners here and there with different trainers. Aidan’s (Howard, trainer) homeplace is only a few miles away from me, so I knew him years ago. When he started training, I got in with him and I’ve stuck with him since.

It must have been a thrill watching her chase down the leader in the final furlong.

Coming to the second last, I was thinking we’d be second again. I’m used to being second. That’s the first winner I’ve ever had on the track.

I’ve been at it 15 or 16 years with Aidan and I’ve had so many seconds, I didn’t think I’d ever break the duck! Simon (Torrens, jockey) was brave.

He rides them out for Aidan, and he knows the horses. It makes an awful difference that he’s in the yard a few days a week. He knows where he’s going. Limerick is a good, fair track. The weather wasn’t great and it was quiet in the middle of the week, but it didn’t matter with the result we got.

Have you got a plan for where she’ll go next?

I was speaking to Aidan on Wednesday and he said she was fine after her run. We won’t rush her and she could run between the middle and the end of the month. So there’s no real plan yet, he’ll let me know and I’ll turn up. I don’t ask any questions. You pay the professionals to do the job, so you have to leave them at it.

How did you come to own Dolly Watkins?

I have another horse there with Aidan, and I brought him home after Christmas for a break after he’d ran poor. I was dropping him back down to Aidan’s a couple of months ago, and he asked if I was interested in a share of another horse. Aidan’s mother Nuala has a share, so I said I’d go for it. It was just by chance really.

Aidan said he thought she’d pay her way, and I asked, ‘You think, or you know?’ And he was confident. So far, so good! He had her last year and she had an issue with her hoof, so she had to be let off for the whole summer, and he’s been very happy with her since she came back.

You’ve had to wait a while for your first winner on the track.

It’s all patience. These things just can’t be rushed. A friend of mine and I went halves on two yearlings a couple of years ago. We thought we were buying two two-year-olds, but one of them just kept growing and only started off as a four-year-old. He ran two or three times over hurdles and he’s handicapped now, so he’ll be one for the summer hopefully, all going well. A lot of it is luck too. Aidan was at the sales with us that day, he had a look around and pointed us in the direction of a few, but we couldn’t afford the direction he was going!

Would better prize money help smaller owners and trainers?

The prize money is grand, but what annoys me is that the millionaires with horses in Grade 1s aren’t racing for the prize money. Instead of upping the prize money for bigger races, it could be better to spread it around the smaller handicaps for the smaller owners and trainers. More power to the people that can afford to give €400,000 or €500,000 for a horse, but I won’t be running in any of those races unless I get lucky, which is very unlikely.

Back 20 years ago, you could go to Navan races and you’d always meet someone that had a leg of a horse, they’re all gone now. The biggest cost now is purchasing a good horse. The best thing to do is buy a foal and sit and wait, but some people don’t have the patience to wait. Of course, you need somewhere to keep the foal and let them grow up then. It’s just a bit of sport, it’s not serious, there’s no money going to be made in National Hunt racing.

If you’re not in it for the love, there’s no point.