MY father and two or three of my uncles worked in Milford Stud. We were always around horses that way. My mother Faith and father Ally always went racing, so from an early age we were going to the races, I just got the bug for it from there, I suppose.

I went to Pat Fahy’s when I was young. I started out there, just weekends and stuff. Myself and Bubba (brother, Niall) went in to Paddy Mullins on weekends and school holidays. I then went to the apprentice school in Kildare and got going full-time from there.

I was with Dermot Weld for a year and then I went down to Willie Mullins after that. I was probably about four years with Willie. I was an amateur, an ordinary enough one, but I got a few winners that time in Willie’s.

Willie’s wasn’t as big as it is now back then, but it was still the main yard coming through. I rode a few winners in bumpers after leaving Willie’s.

I would have ridden out for a few trainers including Philip Rothwell, who was only starting out. I also rode a few winners for him during that time also.

Rode winners

I was nearly finished up riding by the time I went working for Peter Fahey. He wasn’t training at that time, but was breaking and pre-training.

After that, I went to Gordon’s. I knew him from when we were younger. I just started doing bits and pieces with Gordon, like sales and going to the races. He used to have a lot of horses going to England and places at that time, so I used to travel with them. One thing led to another then and you were sort of there full-time then after that.

Runners in England

I would have been with Gordon from a year or two after he began training. He had more runners in England in those days. You’d be over there every week or every second week with horses at the likes of Perth and Ludlow. Gordon was in Capranny when I went in first. He was only getting going, numbers-wise. Obviously as he got more successful, he needed more boxes so he ended up moving over the road to Cullentra.

The success just kept getting bigger for him, so he branched out and bought his own place. It was a green-field site at the time, but he has built it up into what it is today. Nothing changed as such, a lot of the people that were in Capranny are still in Gordon’s now. He has a good few of the older lads that have been there from the start, so that’s a big help to him, I suppose. I was assistant trainer for over a decade.

Great days

The likes of Don Cossack and Tiger Roll were the real big winners that stand out. The Gold Cups and Grand Nationals are the obvious ones, but there have been so many great days.

I get a great kick out of those American trips. I travel over with the horses and get a good kick out of seeing them winning out there. Gordon has been very successful with the horses that he brings out. We had a good weekend there again a couple of weeks ago in Far Hills. He brought out a few runners and won the two big races again. They are the ones that you want when you are going out.

Selling on

Gordon has done really well the last couple of years in America. He has figured out the type of horse you need to bring out for what suits out there. Some of them stay out there and some of them come home again.

He has a relationship now with a few owners out there, where he can sell on horses. You can get your winner and then leave him out there and the horse continues to do a job in America for someone else. It’s a system that works well.

Aside from the big festivals and American races, equally we’ve had great days where we’ve had four winners in Perth or six winners in Navan. You could have as good a day in Navan on a Saturday as a Gold Cup day. Any day you have multiple winners is great. The yard continues to grow and we have a lovely bunch of horses there this year.

Every year, the stable has been lucky enough to have great success. There is a good team of people there in the yard.

We have a good team of staff, a mix of old heads and young people coming through, as well as a great group of owners. Hopefully, we are going to have another good season.

Busty was in conversation with John O’Riordan.