IT takes some doing to render Emma Connolly speechless but that was the state being named winner of the Leadership category at the Godolphin Stud and Stable Staff Awards reduced the Meath native to, albeit temporarily.

It was good to be involved in the overall recognition of stable staff. It is the continuation of a welcome trend in how staff are viewed and treated within the industry, as integral components.

“It was great to be nominated, that people in the yard would think I was worth nominating, and I couldn’t believe that I won.

“In general, things have improved a lot for stable staff. A lot of the racecourses really look after us. Some racecourses aren’t great but the canteens and facilities have improved in most places. Facilities for the horses, wash bays and surfaces are much better. The stables themselves have all improved.

“We have a good bit to go yet. They offer hot food and stuff like that. But when you are looking at the same food day-in, day-out, you don’t eat it. There is only so much of chips, sausages, chicken curry that you will look at.”

Chief medical officer of the IHRB, Jennifer Pugh has been central to the implementation of guidelines for food for jockeys at racecourses, which includes not just healthy options but emphasises the presentation too.

While her job is to care for the riders, Pugh is in favour of similar guidelines being put in place for stable staff on race day and has put representatives in touch with the relevant providers.

“To be fair to most of the racecourses they are really good to us” Connolly emphasises. “They do the best-turned-out prizes and things like that. Most of the racecourses, you wouldn’t complain about.

“I do think more stuff could be made available to us though, like the doctors and the physio, if we do have something small. You don’t have time to go to your own doctor. You have a chest infection, you can run in and ask someone to look at you. Or have a sore shoulder.”

She welcomes that education and training survey currently being rolled out by Horse Racing Ireland and points to the National Vocational Qualifications available in Britain in areas like general horse care and grooming that could be so beneficial to younger staff especially. Opportunities to upskill or create a better career pathway are to be welcomed.

“I know RACE do run a couple of courses, exercise riders and stuff. But there needs to be more depth. It’s great that they’re doing the survey and hopefully more will come out of it.”

Connolly is just another example of someone who wasn’t immersed in horses from childhood but has been in thrall to them since being exposed to ponies and starting to ride as a child.

“My dad, Ambrose Connolly trained greyhounds, so I always was an animal person. I fell in love with ponies. I started riding ponies from a young age and racehorses when I was 10 or 11, for the late Frederick John Bowles. Remember the mare he had, Zamnah? We owned her. I got my mother and father into it. She won seven races. She was a right little thing.

“Then I wouldn’t go to school… so I went into it full time.”

The dream was to be a jockey, and Connolly had about 20 rides as an amateur in bumpers and races confined to lady riders. There just weren’t enough opportunities at that time however, with less racing than there is now and the competition incredibly stiff.

“I probably wasn’t good enough but back then you were riding against the likes of Caroline Hutchinson, Aileen Sloane Lee, Liz Doyle. There was an abundance of good lady riders. Nina (Carberry) and Katie (Walsh) just came on the scene as well. It was very hard to get rides back then.

“You see now there are so few. Katie O’Farrell is gone to England. There is only Rachael (Blackmore) as professional and then you have your couple of girls who ride a good bit like Lisa (O’Neill) and Maxine (O’Sulivan), Liz Lalor still tips away a good bit, Laura Hourigan still rides in bumpers, but other than that there isn’t a whole pile of young girls coming up.”

She was sensible enough not to keep banging her head against a brick wall and wound up at Tu Va Stables 11 years ago, when a friend, the farrier Ciarán Mullen tipped her off that Meade was looking for staff. She went in for an interview and started the following Monday, becoming an integral part of the operation since.

It is a tough life but the 35-year-old went into it because of a passion for horses and that has endured throughout all the long hours, horrendous weather and physical and mental demands.

“I love it basically. I couldn’t imagine sitting in an office. You meet new people every day. You go to different places every day. You could be in the vets one day, racing the next day, picking up a horse at an owner’s the next day.

“I am fortunate enough that I love what I do. I have a serious interest in veterinary. I do all the medicine registers in Noel’s. I do a lot of the rehab of the horses as well. I have a serious interest in that since I was small. If I stayed in school or if I was good enough I would have gone on and been a vet.”

Any followers of Connolly’s on Twitter will know that Snow Falcon is her pet.

"His charachter is just second to none" Connolly with her favourite Snow Falcon \Healy Racing

A winner 12 times (bumper, hurdle, chase and flat), with Grade 2 hurdle and chase prizes on his CV and closing in on half a million euro earned in prize money for Patricia Hunt, the nine-year-old has been an incredible servant. To Connolly, he is so much more than that though.

“I have done everything with him since he was a baby. His character is just second to none. He is just a little legend. He is very laid-back. He likes to sit down like a dog out in the field! He is just so easy, although he is a strong enough ride when he wants to be. He would travel to the moon and back, he wouldn’t turn a hair, he just strolls around the parade ring, he loves the attention.

“He has got a bit of fan club going now, all the girls in Willie’s (Mullins), they all love him. The day he won in Gowran (the PWC Champion Chase last month), there was a load of them in the canteen. They were all screaming at the telly. He is just one of those horses.”

Snowy has taken Connolly to Cheltenham, Newbury and Aintree but she was a bit disappointed with his showing in the Grade 1 Ladbrokes Champion Chase at Down Royal a couple of weeks ago.

“Maybe two-and-a-half or two-six is plenty far enough in them Grade 1s for him. He was fine after. We didn’t find anything wrong and he is tearing up the gallops with me ever since.”

Another horse Connolly attended to was the three-year-old colt Dadoozdart, who has been sold to Australia. The ever-reliable Sheisdiesel is her responsibility too.

The latter duo are part of an ever-increasing flat squad at Tu Va, with Meade encouraged to return to the code he flourished in more than 30 years ago – including saddling a Royal Ascot winner – by the introduction of the auction series.

“The auction series is great. There is serious prize money for them races. To be fair to Red Mills and Forans who are putting them on… They’re doing it for hurdles and bumpers now too. It is great, getting people in that don’t have hundreds of thousands to spend on horses. And in the flat, you’ve a chance of selling on like Dadoozdart for a good profit.”

She will miss him.

“It is part of the game. You get used to it. Hopefully he will be lucky now for his new owners. For a three-year-old colt he was some dude. He was a gorgeous looking little horse as well. Black, he was just one of those horses when you plaited him and turned him out he just looked unreal. Just his attitude and everything, for a colt he was so calm. He didn’t really care. He knows what a filly is but it didn’t bother him. He wouldn’t be roaring his head or running after them.

“I think that is because we were in a National Hunt yard. A lot of the flat horses are very chilled out. National Hunt yards are more relaxed. You have a little two-year-old messing and the horse beside him is not even flinching, so they are going, ‘Oh, right so’ and just stop. Helvic Dream is the same. He does not care. He is just an absolute dude.

“We had a brilliant year on the flat. We had 21 winners. We had a good few placed horses as well. Hopefully we will have a good year next year. We have a good few yearlings in.”

If she will miss Dandoozart, that pang is nothing like when a horse suffers a fatal injury. Disko and Apache Stronghold are two that died as a result of injuries incurred racing in the last 18 months. The latter, another Hunt-owned gelding who was a Grade 1-winning chaser, was also a Connolly horse. She spoke at the time of her grief.

“That is the hardest part. To lose any horse is hard but when you have an attachment with them it is very, very hard. Anybody will tell you that, any yard, regardless of talent, someone in the yard had an attachment to that horse. When you go racing and you come home with an empty box, it’s ... Regardless of whether they are 75 to 100 handicappers or a Grade 1 horse, it doesn’t matter.”

Reading people tweeting about cruelty given how well they are loved brings her to the brink of boiling point.

“They are looked after better than people. I don’t know one horse in our yard that somebody is not attached to, that somebody doesn’t go the extra mile with. Every horse has its own little character. You know all their little things, that they don’t like and they do like. There is more attention paid to them horses than there is to people or children. The money and everything that goes in to them…

“People like that, they don’t understand, they have probably never even touched a horse in their life. They don’t understand the work, the effort, the time.”

If Down Royal was disappointing for Snowy, there was a real boost for the yard in the manner in which Road To Respect picked off King George winner Clan Des Obeaux, to repeat his triumph of 12 months previously under Sean Flanagan.

“He was written off a bit. The run in Leopardstown on that quick ground (in February) left a mark on him. Since he has come back he is mad for going. The way he won was impressive. And he has come out of the race well. Hopefully it will be onwards and upwards for the year.”

With Connolly by Meade’s side, and the considerable talent given expert care, there is indeed plenty to look forward to.