How did you get involved in horse racing?

I gave up cigarettes and decided that I’d buy myself a thoroughbred mare. I rang Seamus Byrne from Lodge Park Stud and asked him about the page. He asked me if she was correct, and I actually didn’t know, so I took a chance and bought her anyway. That was Happy Jacky’s mother. I just kept breeding from her. She’s the only horse I’ve ever bought. I’ve had great success other than Jacky, she’s been very good to me. I’ve been very fortunate in this game considering I know people that have been racing 10 years and have never had a winner. The breeding end of it is tough. You wait so long and then you’re disappointed if they’re not as good as you think they are. When the likes of Jacky comes along, it makes up for it all.

His latest win was his 10th, that must be a great feeling?

Don’t mind the amount of wins he’s had, it’s the general honesty of the horse that we can’t get over. If people were as honest as Jacky, there’d be no stealing in the world. That’s what drives him. Distance-wise, we still haven’t figured out what his best trip is. We’d be arguing away over what to run him in. He’s won from two miles to three miles and it doesn’t matter as long as he’s in the Happy Jacky form. He does a dance when he’s ready to go, and that’s how you know. That’s why I called him Happy Jacky. I don’t really house my horses, they mostly live out, but any time he’d be in, he was so happy to get out and he’d throw his two back feet fully side ways, and that’s how you know he’s ready to rock.

The race in Down Royal was 24 seconds quicker than the average, that’s two furlongs! I looked up all of the three-mile races in Down Royal and there’s nothing within an asses roar of it on any ground. What I can’t understand, is that the horse still thinks he’s four, and so does the handicapper! He’s 11 and he’s probably gone up 30lbs in the last two years, it’s too much. There’s no question that this has been his best and most consistent season. To give him weight continuously is quite unfair. All we can do is be happy that he’s progressing.

Have you got any big targets for him?

I’m hoping to go to Aintree next year. I spoke to Mark about it, and he didn’t think I was completely crazy. There’s a race before the National over three miles, and Aintree is a track that normally comes up quick enough, so if it does I’d definitely take him.

What do you think has caused his improvement at the age of 11?

Mark (Fahey, trainer) has played a big part in his improvement. He rang me one day and told me that he was only a 100-rated horse after a piece of work up the Old Vic. I asked if they’d given him a kick in the belly, and Mark said that he doesn’t do that. He rang me back two weeks later with terrible excitement and said he was like a motorbike! He jumped the third in Down Royal the last day like Istabraaq. Mark is very good with his weight as well, he hasn’t lost a pound, and thrives from his races. I think a bit of it is due to how he was reared. He wasn’t molly-coddled, but he always got fed. He’s never thrown a lame step or done a leg, he’s very hardy.

How did you get in partnership with Mark?

I know Paul (Fahey, farrier) from going to Listowel, and I was asking him if he’d take the horse, but he told me to give him to Mark. I spent two years going up and down to Listowel meeting Paul and asking him to take the horse. Jim Bergin is another man that got me to send Jacky to Mark. He treats Jacky from time to time and he’s very good.

Did you always know from when he was a youngster that he had ability?

No, we took him to the Derby Sale, and they thought he was a bit small. Timmy Hayden broke him in with me, and Tom O’Brien helped me with him a lot as well. When we came back from the sales, Timmy rode him around a 10-acre field that I have, and a hare rose up in the middle of the field. The horse took off and he just kept going around.

Timmy said he’d have gone around again, and I thought he was the fastest horse I’d ever seen. It was lucky we didn’t sell him. I was so close to selling him because I had a few more horses on the ground, and I’m a one-man band so it’s very hard to keep the show on the road when you’re racing and breeding on your own.

Has Jacky got any quirks?

He’d pull shoes out of pure boredom! He pulled a shoe in the stable after the race in Down Royal, and Mark thinks it’s because he wasn’t put in the lorry and brought away home on time so that he can run around in the field. Horses are designed to walk 24 hours a day, so he doesn’t like being kept in the stable for too long. My horses all live outside. There’s a shelter in the field but they never go in, even if it’s pouring outside, they’d rather stand under a tree.

What’s been your biggest learning as an owner?

Listen to no one. Have a decent look at the horse yourself and if you can’t learn from that there’s something wrong! If he’s not happy you can’t run him. Don’t take a horse to the racecourse if they’re not right, because if your horse isn’t 100% right, someone else will be.

It’s all about the horse, nothing else matters. When the time comes, he’ll be going to a funeral home and we’ll have a plaque for him! You’d spend a lifetime looking for a reasonable horse to win a 0-95.

What would you say is the biggest challenge for owners?

Unless you have a few pound on your horse, you won’t cover his fees. It’s sad, you shouldn’t have to do that to keep it going. Overall, I think Jacky has the bones of €140,000 won, but you can be sure that over half of it is gone without even looking. Prize money is a problem, and probably always will be, but it’s probably better than England.