"YOU need to compete at the four-year-old level to stay alive,” commented Gary Murphy as he reflected on an excellent start to his point-to-point season last weekend, when Bonnie Long Legs and Louilood won on their debuts for the 37-year-old Wexford handler (see page 48).

On the Friday night, Cassie had given birth to a baby boy, Gearoíd, but there was little time to celebrate until Sunday evening, when he was finally able to take stock after a busy few days.

Murphy is a family man - they also have a pony-mad daughter Robyn (9) - but he lives and breathes horses and, as a relatively new trainer on the point-to-point scene, has an enviable talent to produce four-year-olds to win on their maiden voyage. The statistics speak for themselves.

Initially coy about being interviewed, once he warmed up to the conversation, he enjoyed chatting about his life that has given him lots of good days both in and out of the saddle.

On the road

His love for horses started as a child at home in Taylorstown, near Wellingtonbridge. “I got a good buzz from hunter trials. I wasn’t much good in school and reluctantly sat my Junior Certificate. My mother said that if I did well, she’d buy me a car. I got nine honours - and my first car.”

“I rode out for Shay Slevin for a while. I was also with Padge Berry and John Walsh. When I got my licence to race in point-to-points, John provided me with my first ride and my first winner in 2008. I then moved to Michael and Ashleigh Murphy at Redbridge.”

Murphy won some 37 races between 2008 and 2019. “I liked the race riding, but I enjoy the training a lot more. It was very hard to get rides. You get to a stage in life where you decide to either keep going or do something else.”

Murphy said that, while he was happy to call it a day, he didn’t have a plan in place. “I was very lucky though, as I owned a few horses with Michael and Ashleigh, where I had spent almost 14 years. They had been very good to me, and I wouldn’t be where I am if it wasn’t for them.

“The first horse we owned together was Frozen Flame. He was second first time out at Ballinaboola and we got a lot of money for him. That gave me the bug and from there on I had it in my head I wanted to train myself.”

Chance meeting

It was a chance meeting one day with Francis Whelan, owner of Cudgley Stables near Duncormick with his wife Mona, that set the ball in motion. “I came across Francis one day at Mark Scallan’s yard. He was looking for someone to train a few horses for him, and I was looking for somewhere to train, so we came up with a plan. The yard is only five minutes from my home, so it worked out well.”

Starting off with five or six horses in 2021, the operation has since grown tremendously. “There were only 10 boxes there when I started. There are 45 boxes now and we are almost at capacity.”

Since 2021, he has notched up 24 winners. The majority of those were four-year-old maidens, with eight this year alone already. Going on last weekend’s results, the 2026/’27 renewal is already off to a good start. “We buy plenty of horses and we’ve been very lucky with some of them,” he said of his business partnership with Whelan.

An engineer by trade, having established F&M Engineering in 1986, Whelan is now retired and has more time to enjoy the sport.

Turbine Syndicate

Most of the horses are owned by this Murphy/Whelan partnership and run under the Turbine Syndicate. “The name goes back even before my training days. Francis had a horse called Cootamundra, who won the Troytown in 2013. He was owned by the Turbine Syndicate, which had been set up by Francis and Joe Moran, so we ran with that name ever since. Joe is now in his 80s and is here regularly.”

Murphy’s parents Ted and Tina have two horses in training with him. Bonnie Long Legs is owned by Murphy’s vet Padhraic Doran. “She’s a very nice mare. He bred her and was going to sell her as a store, but she came to me instead. She could have run in the spring, but we waited until Loughrea last Sunday and we were very confident. It was the fastest race of the day - faster than the geldings - and she won well by one and a half lengths.”

By Ol’ Man River, she has a tremendous pedigree and is from the same family as Rogue Trader and El Bandit. “She’s done her job now, so we’ll sell her on.”

The French-bred Louilood (Bathyrhon) was picked up at the 2025 Tattersalls July Store Sale for €8,500. “He has serious ability - when you go to Portrush which is a very good track, and you do what he has done. He’s a very exciting horse. We will sell him now.”

Together with regular jockey Shane O’Rourke, Murphy won the same four-year-old maiden in 2025 with Rattlin Home, who later went to Dan Skelton.

Skelton also has another Murphy graduate in Hidden Fortune. Winner of her mares’ maiden at Ballyragget in March last year, she has proven to be a very useful sort and won a novice hurdle at Bangor-on-Dee last month.

Old friends

Murphy recalls how his partnership with O’Rourke came about. “We grew up together and he started riding in point-to-points around the same time as me. In the last couple of years, we’ve built up a grand working relationship. ‘Skippy’ as I call him, rides out here three days a week now. Josh Berry and Frankie Murphy come in one day a week to school.”

Murphy has had some loyal staff from the outset. “Ruby Bobia has been here for years. He’s the backbone of the place. We also have Ryan Scott here full-time. Paddy Sinnott works half-days, and Owen Carroll comes in a few days too.

“Monica, who is Francis’s daughter, is here every day. She is fantastic and pulls the manes and does all the turnout. Millie Bates comes here a few days a week and does a lot of the groundwork.”

Never one to sit on his laurels, Murphy will always find ways to fill in time during the off-season and dabbles in sport horses during the summer. “When things get quiet, I bring in a bunch and prepare them for the sales. It gives the lads something to do as well.”

Upgrading facilities

Profits from some of the bigger thoroughbred sales have been pumped back into the business. “As well as putting in more stables, we also put in a three-furlong circular gallop, a schooling strip, walker, sand paddocks and a loose school. We built it as we went along.”

In recent years, Murphy has put several big names through his hands. He recalls some of their stories. “I can’t use computers. I’m still very old-fashioned,” he says, explaining that a typo when doing a registration gave Affordale Fury his name. “It was meant to be Affordable Fury, but we left out the letter B. It was going to cost us a few hundred euro to fix it, so we left it alone.

“Darragh Berry and I got him at the Tattersalls May Store Sale in 2021. He was a beautiful good-moving horse by the first-season sire Affinisea and wasn’t too dear at €8,000. He provided me with my first winner when landing a four-year-old maiden the following March in Ballycahane. He went to the Cheltenham Festival Sale, but came home when he wasn’t sold. Noel Meade and Peter Nolan then bought him privately.”

An eight-time winner over fences - including the Grade 1 Savills Chase in Leopardstown - the eight-year-old pulled up with a small injury in the Paddy Power in February and subsequently missed Cheltenham. He is, however, entered for the Grade 1 BetVictor at Down Royal on October 31st.

“I bought Loaded And Locked at the Derby Sale. He went on to win a five-year-old geldings’ maiden in Ballindenisk and I sold him at the Cheltenham Sale. He won a bumper and a novice hurdle for Emma Lavelle.”

Classy mares

Murphy has had good fortunes with mares, one being Gavin Cromwell’s Only By Night, runner-up in the Paddy Power Chase at Cheltenham. Coincidentally, she is also by Affinisea. “We’ve had some lovely horses by him. We also had a few by Ol’ Man River. He wouldn’t be fashionable, but I’ve had a lot of luck with him too.”

Only By Night was bought in partnership with Whelan and came from the Tattersalls August National Hunt Sale. “I think we gave €13,500 for her and it was enough, given it was a filly by a first-season sire at the time. She sadly fell on her first and second starts, but bolted up to win third time out at Lingstown and sold well at the Tingle Creek Sale at Goffs UK.”

Another nice mare was Chosen Comrade, a home-bred of Whelan’s by Walk In The Park. “She won her maiden at Borris and was sold to Peter Fahey. She won a bumper at Tipperary first time out and a maiden hurdle too.”

Several smart three-year-old fillies are among this year’s purchases. “We have a lovely Order Of St George filly that we spotted at the Arkle. We had a price for her in our heads, and we gave €27,000, which wasn’t dear on the day. She’s a beautiful filly and a half-sister to the Grade 1 horse Birchdale.

“Between the Derby, Arkle and the August sales, we racked up close to 25 or 30 horses. The trade was tremendous. It’s great to see it so strong.”

No time wasted

Murphy doesn’t waste any time once the youngsters arrive at the yard. “Once they get going, we do lots of schooling, then in early December we step up the pace a bit. Around Christmas time, we school them on grass and in January we step it up again.

“Some might be ready to run in the spring and others not until the autumn. You might have some with setbacks and don’t run until they are five. Others are just not cut out for it. Those are usually sold off as riding horses.

“This is probably the first year I’ve had a good few four-year-olds left over. I ran two at the weekend. I have another two, Coin Collector (by Affinisea) and Coole Hill (by Shirocco) entered for this weekend.”

Obtaining a full licence for the track is not something he had contemplated, but it may come to pass in the future should the opportunity arise. “I don’t have any track horses right now, but when you get up to the high numbers you might have something that’s not a good enough jumper for point-to-points but could run on the track. It may happen in the next few years.”

Looking to the immediate future, Murphy’s aim is to keep his current string on the right track. “We have a nice bunch of horses, so I want to keep them healthy so they can run to their ability.

“When you are training racehorses, you need to enjoy the good days and try and get through the bad days. When you have that many, you’ll always have problems. Plenty go the good road, and plenty go the bad road too. It evens itself out,” he concluded.