I GREW up on a farm in Co Westmeath where my father was a cattle dealer. I always loved the animals and I worked with them in all aspects from a very young age. I loved racehorses but, to be honest, we couldn’t afford one at the time.

My mother had her own pony when she was growing up – she would relay to us the pleasure she had galloping and jumping obstacles every day. My passion developed from there.

After briefly working in a secretarial position and studying for teaching diplomas, I then completed a speech and drama training course and went into the media/fashion business for a number of years. I worked as a model and compèred fashion shows for a time. After this, I worked as a sales consultant.

But I always wanted to go back into the media business. I did a course in Television (Presenting, Producing and Directing) at the Bill Keating Centre. This gave me great confidence.

For years I had a keen interest in horse racing. In fact, on my first date with my husband, we went to the Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse. We have met lots of friends through the sport and have been involved in horseracing syndicates from time to time.

I am both a National Hunt and flat racing fan. I have so many favourite racehorses but one that stands out in National Hunt is Florida Pearl, and on the flat High Chaparral.

I decided to merge my passion for horse racing with my keen interest in history/heritage and the experience I built growing up and working on a farm in rural Ireland. I also had the desire to return to the media business, hence this brought about our production company.

I was very influenced by Colm Murray’s passion for the sport. My husband Bernard (having studied Business/IT in Trinity College) is a great help in running the business end of things. We set up Bankos Tales Productions about eight years ago.

We have produced four programmes to date including Horse Racing Syndicates – It Could Be You, released on DVD, Punchestown – Seeing Out The Distance aired on TG4, Paddy Mullins – The Great Stayer aired Eir Sport and RTE ONE and The Irish Grand National ~ Chasing a Dream on RTE ONE. They all have been very popular, appealing to everybody not just horse racing fans and got a huge audience share. It’s all a big team effort.

TOTAL PASSION

We only produce what we have a total passion for and enjoy doing. This in turn makes working a pleasure rather than a chore. It is a great privilege to be able to meet some of the greats in racing both here in Ireland and in the UK. Everyone is so helpful in horse racing we couldn’t do it without their support and the help we get from the media as well is amazing.

There’s great feedback and satisfaction to the programmes – not just in Ireland but also from abroad. I met a man in Punchestown from Germany and he told me he had seen the Punchestown programme and decided to come to the festival.

To make a high quality production you need funding, the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland funded Paddy Mullins ~ the Great Stayer and The Irish Grand National ~ Chasing a Dream, but it is really competitive. The storylines have to be exceptionally strong to compete against the very best in Ireland. It’s also very difficult to get a TV station to support a proposal.

You don’t rush into an idea for a programme, you have to wait until you get an idea that will have wide appeal. We have been approached by a lot of people with ideas, and while they would be very special, they wouldn’t have wide appeal. When the idea is worth jumping at and the adrenaline flows you know that’s it.

The first thing we do is preliminary research and check out if there are enough strong storylines to make an engaging programme. Then we approach the people involved to check if they would be on board. Unique location access is key, as are contributors to the programme that are synonymous with the story. The team we work with are highly professional, contribute hugely and enjoy it, apart from the ‘red eye’ as they call early flights in the morning.

Now the adrenaline is flowing again but also we have the usual funding issues. We have a new director and have a sensational new idea for a programme and are seeking a TV station to support it.

AnnaMay Mullins was in conversation with John O’Riordan