How did you get involved in racing and breeding?

My wife Christina and I were in Australia for seven years, and my dad had a farm at home. He was always a racegoer and the racing was on in the house all day every day. He passed away about three months after we came home, and we ended up running the farm. We wanted to get into business, so we set up a business called Cabins And Containers, and then we got out of the farming. We were on the land and felt close to my father so we wanted to keep something going for him.

That’s when we decided to buy a few broodmares. I was lucky enough that Martin from Phoenixtown Stud is local and gave us great advice and mentoring to get us up and going. We have two foals on the ground at the moment, and when you let them out in the morning and see them running around, there’s nothing nicer. We love it.

When did you buy Ribee’s mare?

We bought the mare White Light when she was in foal to Ribchester. Ribee was her first foal. White Light was the second mare we bought. When we went up to the mares’ sale, anything with a nice page was out of our budget. We went to look at the Godolphin mares, and there was a stable with the top door closed. There mare inside was White Light, and she was a weaver and a crib biter, and not the most attractive mare. I had a very good breeder from Kells with me, Martin Butler, and he told me to take a chance on her, so I went for it.

We foaled her down ourselves here and then we brought Ribee to the sales. Ribchesters weren’t fashionable at the time and we didn’t even get a bid for him so we brought him home and put him in the field. Roger at Tally-Ho advised us not to leave him on his own, so I was going to buy him a companion, but I didn’t want to put good money after bad, so we put him out with the teaser. The two of them were thick as thieves, and the teaser is a bit of a pet so Ribee ended up becoming a pet as well. When the time came, we decided to put him in training and see what happened.

How did the partnership with Michael Mulvany come about?

Michael is a neighbour of ours, we can see Michael’s from our place. One thing about the Mulvany’s is, if Michael’s not away racing, he’s passing our place in the truck heading away working horses. I went down to the yard on Monday morning to say hello and keep the celebrations going, and they were all gone away in the truck.

They never stop, they’re very hard workers. When you have a small yard, it’s like a Premier League club, when you have a good player, you have to sell them on, so it’s hard to become established. It was great for both of us to win last weekend.

Were you confident in your chances heading to the Curragh?

Michael had been saying that he wasn’t going well on the gallops. He’s been working alongside a horse rated in the 70s and there wasn’t much in it, and Ribee should have been beating him well. All the talk was bad, but that other horse was Electric Beauty who went out and won the last race on the day!

We were mingling with the owners of Electric Beauty, and they’d backed Ribee at 20/1, so we backed their horse who was also 20/1. Two 20/1 winners in one day doesn’t happen very often! I was watching on the phone because there was bad visibility, and I was saying to Christina that he’d gotten a lovely trip, and at the two-furlong pole I thought he was going the best of the lot of them, I was just hoping Declan (McDonogh, jockey) didn’t go too early on him.

Our son Setanta was slagging his mammy when we got home saying “This was you yesterday” and waving his hands about, screaming and shouting. I went with my mam, Christina, the two kids, and Caroline who minds the kids and has been with us forever. So, we had three mothers there for Mothers’ Day and they loved it. It couldn’t have been a better day.

It must be lovely to enjoy a day like that with your kids and the whole family.

It’s brilliant. It’s a great family day out. Roscommon is a great family track as well. When we go there, we bring Caroline and my mam and it’s lovely. It’s safe for the kids and it’s a great way to spend time with them. If you win or lose it doesn’t matter, it’s just a nice family day out.

We have Setanta and Cuan, and Setanta has always come racing with us. He loves Ribee. He’s not a good ground horse, so when the ground dries up, we bring him home for the summer. Setanta is four, going on five, and he goes out into the middle of the field petting Ribee. He’s the gentlest horse you could have around the place.

I see Ribee has a listed entry at Naas, is that the plan now?

Michael rang to ask if we wanted to give him an entry over a mile and two. I leave it to Michael and we do whatever he suggests. If it rains a bit he’ll have a chance, and if he got placed it wouldn’t do the mare any harm at home, so we’ll have another day out soon.