JACKIE Cullen has spent a lifetime going racing, and it’s so far been measured in miles travelled, meetings attended and stories collected, rather than winners led in. From Listowel to Galway, and from Gowran Park to just about every corner of the country, Jackie’s love of racing was unwavering, long before he ever owned a racehorse. But, on a wet day at Fairyhouse last Saturday, a dream that had followed him through a lifetime at the races finally came true.

“I went racing all my life,” Jackie recalls, as we sat in his niece’s kitchen. “I always went to Listowel, and I went to the Galway Festival for 30 years without missing a meeting. I’ve been to all of the tracks, and nearly every meeting at Gowran.”

Asked how he got involved in horses, he pointed across the room to his niece, Mags Mullins, who was making a pot of tea. There is a youthful spark in Jackie as he tells me about his days racing. Ask him for a favourite track, and the answer arrives without hesitation.

“Besides my local track, Gowran, Listowel is my favourite. There are great people there, and they’d never rip you off with the prices.”

For all those years spent as a racegoer, Jackie carried one dream with him the whole way.

“I always had a dream of leading a winner into the parade ring as an owner, and my dream came true. After all the years of going racing, it’s all I wanted to do. I’m happy that it happened while I had time. It’s great to be involved with my family.”

That dream became a reality courtesy of Eagle’s Quest, part-owned and trained by his niece, Mags Mullins, and ridden to victory her son Danny. Anthony Mullins, another son of Mags, is also a part-owner. The family dimension is not lost on Jackie, nor is the role they have played.

“What would I know without Mags and Danny?” he says.

Persuasion

Mags herself admits that Jackie’s venture into ownership required some persuasion. “He asked me to get him a horse and I said, ‘Jackie, you don’t want a horse!’ When people buy horses, they say they’re throwing away money, but this guy is starting to turn into a little money machine.”

Eagle’s Quest just happened to be the right horse at the right time, Mags explained: “It’s a long road with National Hunt horses. I had a couple of nice three-year-olds there if Jackie wanted one, but they won’t run until next year. Eagle’s Quest just happened to be there and ready to run.”

Despite Mags’ hesitations, it was an easy decision for Jackie. “It was the right time, and I put my foot in it!” he enthused.

“He was sent over here by Stephen Kemble after running in two bumpers in England,” Mags recalled. “We didn’t get him sold, so eventually we bought him from Stephen.

“We gave him a run and then he got a little bang and we had to leave him off for a year. It was only a very slight injury, but stopping was the right thing to do. He came back perfect, the patience paid off.”

“That’s the trouble, a lot of people rush into it,” Jackie added.

Beyond the excitement of a race day, and having pictures taken at the winner’s enclosure, ownership has brought something far more meaningful to Jackie.

“It’s after doing me the power of good,” he says. “I feel like a different person. It gives me something to look forward to every day. It keeps me going. I’d hope that it would entice more people my age into ownership.”

Mags revealed the scale of this transformation when she said: “Jackie was very sick last year, and it’s turned him inside out.”

Ups and downs

Like many seasoned racegoers, Jackie is under no illusions about the realities of racing, but his optimism remains firmly intact, even if delivered tongue-in-cheek. “There’s a lot of ups and downs, more downs than ups. I’ll have to tell J.P. McManus to look out, I’m on my way!”

Future plans for Eagle’s Quest include a run on the flat in preparation for a run at Punchestown.

“We might give him a run on the flat in case we run him through the summer, and we’ll go to Punchestown then because he’s qualified for the final. It’ll be a big ask, but it’s worth taking the chance. I think he wants better ground than he’s had though,” Mags says.

The Punchestown race in question is the Connolly’s Red Mills Irish EBF Auction Hurdle Series Final, and Mags has found great value in the race series, with a bonus going to the winners of each qualifying race.

“The prize money is nice in those Red Mills races, and there’s a €10,000 bonus,” Mags says and Jackie’s ears suddenly pricked up. “By God, that’s good, where is it?”

Jackie is living proof that we should all follow our dreams, no matter what age we are, and his advice is refreshingly simple: “You always have to take a chance.”