How did you get involved with horse racing?

Kilbrin Rocco belonged to my father, and he passed away last February, so I’ve carried them on since then. He had a couple of broodmares that I used to do with him.

The mares we have at the moment are all homebreds. We have a few horses in training at the moment but it’s expensive, so I might have to try and find a home for some of them.

We didn’t put any mares in foal last year because the place is full at the moment, we have enough horses. I like to hold on to some of them but I’ll have to start selling, it would break me to have them all in training.

My father always liked horses, but it’s only now things are coming to fruition and we have a few nice ones in. Kilbrin Rocco won in January before he passed away, and we have Kilbrin Rose who is running in point-to-points and she’s there or thereabouts now.

They’re better now than they were when my father was alive unfortunately, but at least they’re showing off his work. We have two-year-olds, three-year-olds and four-year-olds at home so I need to start selling some of them.

Even my father could see last year that we had enough horses. Kilbrin Rocco was always an easy-going character, and he loves going to the races. He’d nearly put down his head to be plaited.

Were you confident going into the run at Tramore last week?

The last day in Limerick, the ground was very heavy and that caught him out, so we reckoned we had a chance in Tramore.

Eoin (McCarthy, trainer) was standing beside us when he passed the line, and we didn’t know where we were.

They all crossed the line in a bunch so we didn’t realise we’d won until we saw the replay.

There was a great atmosphere in Tramore. Every time they passed the post, even with a circuit to go, the crowd were getting excited. You wouldn’t know when the start or finish of a race was.

Have you discussed with Eoin what’s next on the cards for Kilbrin Rocco?

He ran in Killarney two years ago and struck himself. He’s grand now but we won’t run him on ground that’s too firm.

He needs a cut in the ground but we can’t do bottomless either. We’ll give him a break if the ground firms up too much, so we’ll se what way the weather goes.

Hopefully we’ll have a few more good days out with him.

What’s your relationship like with Eoin? He’s flying it.

It’s nice to see lads like himself doing well and coming up the ranks a bit.

I’d be in and out to Eoin every so often as I’m a vet, and he’s only down the road from where I’m living in Abbyfeale.

Eoin’s head is well screwed on and he knows his horses, I find him great as a trainer.

He rides out the horses himself so he knows how they’re going. He broke his leg a couple of years ago, and it’s sorted now, but I’d say at the time he didn’t have as much of a grasp on his horses because he couldn’t ride them.

It makes a difference when he rides them, he knows them inside out.

Your kids were at the races with you, have they got an interest in horses as well?

My kids and I go hunting during the winter, and then they do a bit of show jumping and pony club during the summer.

Our hunt club, the North Kerry Harriers, has a good following and my eldest daughter comes out with me. My youngest son is nine and he’s mad anxious to go, we just need to find the right horse for him.

There are a lot of ditches and dikes to jump around here. There is some amount of young lads with the North Kerrys that are anxious to be jockeys in time.

I’d say half the field is under 18. There are good little ponies on the hunt and they’d jump anything, they’ll go off hunting like mad all winter.