IRISH Champions Festival features prominently among the highlights of Johnny Murtagh’s 10-year training career. Success with Champers Elysees in the Matron Stakes in 2020 was his first Group 1 win as a trainer and Sonnyboyliston gave him an Irish St Leger win the following year.

As a jockey, succcess also came regularly at the highest level for Murtagh in the famous Aga Khan green silks, with the likes of Sinndar, Alamshar and Enzeli. Today, he saddles his three-year-old colt Zahrann in those familiar colours, to take on the best in the Royal Bahrain Irish Champions Stakes.

He spoke to Amy Lynam this week on successes past and hopes for the future.

You are currently third in the trainers’ table by winners and fourth by prize money, which is probably on course for your best ever season. What do you put that down to? Have you done anything differently?

I think we have better horses. You can see we’ve better horses. We’ve just got a clear run at this year, horses seem to have been fit and well and healthy all year. We started off the year with a lot of three-year-old maidens. You’re hoping that they will improve. You need to be a decent horse to win a maiden in April and May in Ireland. And we won plenty of them, so it’s been a good run there. For the last couple of months, the horses have run well.

Are you the type of person who’s never satisfied, or are you happy with how the season’s gone?

I’m happy the way it’s going, but you need to be in the top five trainers in Ireland. You need to be winning a million in prize money, just to make it kind of pay and make it worthwhile.

It’s a tough gig without that. So, you know, I don’t look too far ahead. I’m just concentrating now on Galway today with one eye on the weekend, going to Champions Weekend, but happy. As it used to say in my school report, ‘Can do better, must try harder.’

For the weekend, the first horse we’ve got to talk about is Zahrann in the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes. How has he been since his last win? Were you expecting that sort of performance from him in his last race?<

Well, I was hoping he could do it. He came out of Ascot very well, we gave him a little bit of time to get over Ascot and he came out of it very well.

We wanted to see could he be competitive. Could he win a Group 3 race at a mile a quarter? Would he match up into an Irish Champion Stakes horse? And we were happy with the run. He’s come out of the race very well. We don’t think he’s the finished article but we are looking forward to the weekend. Everything has gone smoothly with him since,

You compared him to Sinndar the last day. Does the Aga Khan silks make them a bit more special in your eyes?

I rode Sinndar work, all his work, and he is a bit like Sinndar, he would just beat his lead horse and get to the top, you were just getting by your lead horse.

This lad’s a bit the same. He just seems to get by his lead horse. Not a very flashy worker, very uncomplicated horse, goes round the yard, you wouldn’t know he’s in it.

So that’s his comparison to Sinndar, he has to do a bit more to compare with Sinndar on the track. He’s only rated 111 so he’s a bit more improvement to do. But I feel he keeps his best until the race track. And whatever we put in front of him, he seems to be able to step up but it’s a big step up this weekend, and we know that.

You have two in the Solonaway Stakes, Chicago Critic and Alakazi. How hopeful are you of those?

They ran very well the last time. There’s not much between them. Alakazi always works really well at home. He’s a horse I thought could go all the way. He’s been hitting the crossbar, so it’s a big weekend for him.

Chicago Critic, very solid horse, loves Leopardstown, came home very strongly. Seamus Heffernan said he was a little bit unlucky the last time.

They’re going there with two live shots. You know, it’s a very competitive race, but we’re hopeful, they’re in good shape. I’d be hoping both of them can be very competitive.

And Rayenzi is due set up a step up in trip. Is that what you took out of his his last run?

He came out with a race very well. I thought he was fit and well, but he was gelded in between his last run and Naas and we probably rode him a little bit too aggressive for his fitness, because he had a good blow after that race, but I’m very happy the way he came out with the race.

I think he’s improved a nice bit from Naas. And I’m looking forward to stepping him up in trip, but he wouldn’t be a guaranteed mile and a half horse, so it’s a bit of a learning curve with him. I still think he’s a horse with lots of ability. We just haven’t found probably the perfect trip for him yet.

You’ve lots of entries in the premier handicaps. Are there a few that you’d think of as your best hopes?

I suppose the filly that’s kind of surprising every time she runs is Onemoredance. She started the season off in a low grade handicap, and she’s done nothing but improve. And Jamie Powell rode her work there last week, and he says ‘This one’s improved a lot’. He was out with an injury, Jamie, so he hadn’t ridden in a while, so he thought she had improved a lot.

She has a rating of 93 but it would be great for Ciaran Kilkenny and his syndicate there and all the boys. There’s a big team of the Dubs heading up to Leopardstown there. And it would be good for them, but we’ve lots of runners in all the handicaps because I just said to the owners, we might as well be running for top prize money, than waiting for a week and then running for 15 or 20 grand against the same horses.

So we’ve pitched a lot of them in. A lot of them are after being busy all year, a lot of them are probably at the top of their handicap rating. But I have a couple of good apprentices there. They’re going to claim seven off them. And, hopefully, with the horses being in such good form, they can be competitive. But, you know, draws and bit of luck in running will play big part in those handicaps.

Your first Group 1 came on this weekend when Champers Elysees won the Matron Stakes on 2020. Would you say so far, that’d be the highlight of your career?

Yeah, sure, winning a Group 1 is great, Champers Elysees was special, owned by a great syndicate of people who really helped me out at the start of the journey and when you needed it most.

Then you go on to Sonnyboyliston winning the Irish St Leger, and then you go to Royal Ascot, having your first Royal Ascot winner. They’re all special and they’re all different. It’s hard to pick one above the other, but we have a good record on Champions Weekend, so I hope it can continue this weekend.

I kind of take from that that maybe you’re not too sentimental about individual horses. Are you or do you have favourites?

The good ones are always your favourite. You always like the ones that won the Group 1s. But, you know, we have a few old boys around the yard which I love, like the Final Voyages, the Mashhoors. You know, they’re just warriors. They get to 92, they can’t win, by the time they get back down to 86 or 87 they are able to win, but then they go back up to 92. They’re just nice horses to have around the place.

But your eye is always drawn to the good horses, you know, to see how they react, to make sure they’re eating up. And the good ones seem to do it easy all the time. So I do have a few favourites, but I suppose, like most people, the good ones are your favourites.

There’s no weekend in Ireland should go by without a ‘100 grand to the winner’ race.

You touched on it already, how the prize money away from these bigger races isn’t quite up to scratch and the cost of having a horse in training is going up all the time. Do you find it difficult to attract owners in when you have that imbalance between the cost and the prize money?

We’re doing a good job in Ireland. But you can look at the weekdays in England and you can say, oh, they’re only racing for peanuts in England. But with this new Sunday Series, with the Racing League they have, their weekends have more money than we have on the weekends. There’s no weekend in Ireland should go by without a ‘100 grand to the winner’ race.

I don’t care what it is, whether it’s a listed race or a handicap, but the standard of horses we have in Ireland, every weekend there should be 100 grand to a winner, and that is the only way we’re going to maintain it.

We don’t have runners in these big races anymore. Why? Because we have to sell the horses. You have to sell them on because you cannot say to an owner ‘Keep them, there’s a 100 grand handicap next week, he might win it.’ We don’t have that. You can’t say that.

If you get offered big money for America, Hong Kong or Australia, you have to sell. There’s no way you can say to an owner not to sell, or there’s no way it makes sense not to sell. We do need to be careful on that. We need more prize money. And I’m a big believer that every weekend we should have a 100 grand to the winner race.

I can’t believe we don’t have a school or a centre of excellence for young people

Would that be your biggest frustration as a trainer, or what you see as the biggest challenge in your job?

There’s loads of different challenges. I love what I do, I really enjoy what I do, I like being part of the team. I was on my own for years as a jockey, you’re kind of on your own, you’re doing it yourself, but the big part for me has been a team. But we need to be keeping these better horses.

There’s nothing worse than winning a maiden with a horse and getting an offer in and then he’s gone, he’s sold then before you even get a chance to get them up the rankings. So we just need to be very careful. We’re not telling everybody we’re the best in the world. Our prize money is not the best in the world.

I suppose having the likes of the Aga Khan, that keep their horses, and are not known as sellers compared to others, do you find that helpful so that you can retain the quality of horse that you have?

The owner-breeders are the people you need to be training for. You see all the top ones, the Godolphins, the Coolmores, the Juddmontes, Shadwell, the Aga Khan. That’s where all the classic winners and the good horses come from, Not all, but most of them.

So, when you’re going to the sales with 50 grand, you just need to be very, very lucky to get: one, the horse you want to buy the most, and two: to get a good horse that you can keep it improving and go all the way.

And when you’re talking about going to the sales with your 50 grand, they were so strong last year, and they’ve started off strong again. How did you get on last year? And have you many plans for this year?

Tough going. A lot of people are in that 50 grand bracket now. You’re competing against a lot of people. You just have to put the hard yards in at the sales and hopefully you find the one that everybody else doesn’t want or that they don’t see.

But this year again, we’re going to the sales. I don’t have too many orders. You gave me my stats, I’m third in the list in Ireland on winners, I’ve a million in prize money. But I’ve no orders going to the sales.

It is 100%, as you said, what more do you have to do? But hopefully, a weekend like Leopardstown and the Curragh will elevate you to the next level.

And there’s so many different aspects to your job. There’s the sales, there’s being in the yard in the mornings, there’s being at the races. Is there a favourite part of it for you?

The yard is the favourite part. I don’t go racing that much, I have got Denis Linehan there, he does a lot of the racing. I don’t go racing much.

I like being around the yard. I like being around the horses. And, you know, watching the horses in the morning, I shouldn’t say it too loud, it doesn’t really feel like a job. (But put that in brackets!)

Do you enjoy it more than you did riding then, because you were talking about the team earlier? Or is it difficult to choose between the two?

I love training. You know what I was like when I was riding. I was a bit miserable, I was always in bad form. I’d like to think I’m in a bit better form now. You’re eating three meals a day, you’re there all the time.

Now, as a jockey, when you get off and that’s the end of it, you can just walk away from the trainer and the owner and say, good luck, and thanks. But as a trainer, you have to go home and you have to see what went wrong and how can we improve it on that. But I do, I enjoy the training. I love training.

You didn’t come from a racing background, so I was curious to hear what you think could be done to get more people like yourself into the industry, be they going to be working in it, or spectators?

We really miss RACE. I can’t believe we don’t have a school or a centre of excellence for young people, it’s just kind of a bit mind-blowing really.

We’re the best in the world. If I was a young golfer now coming out of college, I’d go to America, because they have colleges in America, because that’s where the best colleges are to be a young person, to try and get into the profession.

We’re the best in the world at racing, but we don’t have anywhere for young people to go now to become a jockey or to become part of the racing, so it’s just terrible that we don’t have RACE anymore, or a place like it.

To get people into racing, we need to tell people more how good racing is. I’m on Twitter (X). I haven’t seen much about Champions Weekend this week. You need to ram it down their throats really, you know what I mean. If you keep saying it, if you keep saying it enough, saying it loud enough, without knowing, they’ll nearly believe you.

Do we think they’re going to come anyway? That’s not going to happen. So, are we promoting it enough? Are we enough on X/Twitter? Are we enough on Instagram? Are we, you know, are we ramming it down the throat?

I wake up every morning and I follow a few of those Australian sites, and I follow some of those from Hong Kong, they just keep ramming it down your throat. The World Champion is from Hong Kong, Ka Ying Rising…it’s just every second post, Hong Kong this, and Hong Kong that, and the world champion, and he’s the best sprinter in the world.

So now, without that horse even leaving Hong Kong, I’m starting to believe maybe he is the best horse in the world.

So you need to be promoting your sport more. You need to have a bit of passion about it, when you’re writing something on Twitter, it sounds like you’re passionate about and you believe it. You know, by reading a text or a tweet, or whatever it is, someone’s just filling in the hour, or someone who really believes, who wants you to believe.

You need to promote the sport better and get it out there and tell everybody how good we are.

I’ve heard that you were boxing, and somebody suggested to you that you should get into horses because of your height or your strength or whatever. Did you have any background with horses themselves before that? Even if it wasn’t racing?

No, my cousins had a few donkeys and had a few ponies, and we used to go down there and ride them around the fields.

But the first horse I rode was in the apprentice school, and that’s where I learned to ride. I just learned everything from there.

And we’ve spoken about promoting racing, but I often find that maybe they don’t promote the horses, and working with animals as a positive.

The horses are the superstars. They do all the running. But I feel, if you get into the atmosphere of horses and you’re around them a bit, you either take to it straight away. The same with people going racing, people go racing the first time, it’s getting them there and getting them to enjoy it the first time, they’ll be bitten by the bug and they’ll come back.

But it’s getting them there and keeping them entertained, that 35 minutes between races, that’s a bit too long for my liking. People don’t want to hang around anymore, they want quick, quick action.

Off The Ball interview about alcohol addiction

That was something that you struggled with when you were riding. I’m sure it like hit home with plenty of people, whether they’re in the game or not. In the last few years, it seems like we hear more about jockeys testing positive either for drugs or alcohol. Do you think the jockeys’ lifestyle or the ups and downs of the game kind of contribute to the problem, or is it just that they’re getting tested, and that’s why it kind of shines a light on it?

We think in our game there’s loads of it but I’m sure it’s everywhere nowadays. You know, that kind of way, it’s everywhere.

What I said the other day, it’s well in the past, and I just hoping it would help somebody along the line. But there’s drink and drugs so freely out there at the moment, and it’s so out in the open. Maybe we hear more because people are a bit more open and a bit more honest. We can’t just say it’s in our game, it’s everywhere.

On promoting racing to a wider audience

I think we need to be on the front foot with all this, with promoting racing and saying how good it is, especially Irish racing.

I started training 10 years now. The standard of horses in Ireland are unbelievable. We want to keep all them good horses in Ireland. The only way to keep them there is to make sure that the owners are getting well paid and they feel like there’s a way out with their horse, that they don’t have to sell them straight away after they win a maiden. That they can win enough prize money to be, you know, covering all the bills and maybe a bit more.