How did your syndicate get started?

There’s my three brothers and myself, and two family friends, Sean Murphy and Pat Folan. It’s called the Shoot A Hoop Syndicate because we were all basketball players in our youth. None of us are in our youth now. Our average age must make us the oldest syndicate in Ireland, but as long as we have a bit of success we don’t mind! I’m 87, and the baby of the syndicate is about 72.

A friend of ours who went to school with my brothers and knocked around with them got into horses, and then decided to get out of them. He gave us our first horse to run and it was in training with Tony Mullins. That was Stadium Project. We’ve enjoyed our relationship with Tony over the last 25 years. We’ve had some good successes.

He gave him to my brother who was chairman of building the new soccer pitch in Athlone at the time. Any winnings the horse got went to the stadium, so after that the syndicate took it over. I had five brothers, and originally, all six of us were involved with two friends.

One of the lads dropped out, and my brother Paul, who was the keenest of us all into racing, died some time ago, so we decided to name Paul’s Dream after him. It has a very special significance to us as a family. If he were alive now, he’d be over the moon with the success of the horse.

As we’ve gotten older, it’s turned into a hobby for us and gives us a chance to meet up. We go to Tralee every year for the Listowel Harvest Festival. I don’t know if we’ll run Paul’s Dream, she likes good ground and Listowel in September can turn up softish. If the ground is good, I’d hope we could get a run there, but that’s for another day. We’ll have the craic anyway!

Paul’s Dream has been a revelation for your syndicate.

She won in Kilbeggan last Friday and in Ballinrobe a few weeks before that. She won both races very handily, so I presume she’ll get a right kick in the bum from the handicapper! We’re always guided by Tony, he gives good advice and he makes a lot of the right choices for us. We wouldn’t be anywhere near him in his knowledge of horses and which race to go for.

Mike Burke of the Shoot A Hoop Syndicate with his trophy after Paul's Dream's win in Kilbeggan

In our first 10 years owning horses, we had about 19 or 20 winners, and then for the next 10 years we had absolutely nothing until Paul’s Dream came along. We’re back in a winning vein at the moment, so let’s hope it continues on to Galway.

We just ran into some bad luck. At that stage we had a few horses with Shark Hanlon as well, and we bred a few off our mare Coosan Belle, but none of them turned out any good, apart from Carraigdoun Boy who we sold to Jonjo O’Neill. He unfortunately lost a battle with colic, and that was part of our bad luck as well, but we seem to have turned a corner now.

It must be great to have jockeys like Danny Mullins and Harry Cobden riding your horse.

I consider Danny one of the top jockeys. He’d have been riding her last Friday only he was suspended after something when he was in America, but you couldn’t get a better replacement than Harry Cobden. It was his first ride at Kilbeggan so he did very well. Tony had given him instructions to bide his time and make his move towards the end, but he said that the horses in front were going slow and Paul’s Dream had a mind of her own and went forward.

He let her go and once she hit the last, there’s very few horses that can make 10 lengths on such a short and uphill run-in on a bend. We didn’t know whether she’d stay two and a half miles, because she’d been running over two and two and a quarter all along. But she certainly proved she can stay. With the way she finished, I’d say another two furlongs would be no bother to her either.

Tony said with the way she’d been training, he had no doubt she’d stay. As long as she stays healthy that’s the main thing. I never saw a trainer as delighted as Tony was that night in Kilbeggan, he was charmed. You could see he was very happy and he said ‘Roll on Galway’! I have great time for Tony. He’s very up front with us and he’s become a good friend of ours over the years. It’s nice to have a good friend training our horses, and he’s top notch at his job.

Is there a moment that stands out as a highlight for you?

I think Battling Boru winning in Galway is a highlight. It’s great to see a horse coming up the hill in front. I suppose your first winner is hard to forget, so Stadium Project in Roscommon was a good uplift as well. Paul’s Dream ran in a Grade 2 at Cheltenham last October and fell at the second last with the race at her mercy, but we knew then that she was a good mare. She’s no Dawn Run, but we can dream!

It’s a wonderful industry and it’s a great pastime as well. You can make a lot of friends, and there’s nothing better than a day at the races. It’s the best value in sport that you’ll get. You’re getting four or five hours of entertainment, and your comfort as well. The tracks look after us very well. I hope to get a few more years to follow Paul’s Dream to the end of her career, which I hope is a long way away yet.

You get a rush of adrenaline from winning, there’s nothing like it. There was one day I was in Tramore, and we had a winner. I was up in the stands and had a walking stick. I got a blast of adrenaline when the horse won and nearly abandoned the stick to run into the winner’s enclosure! It gives me a good boost.