PROVE The Point’s success in Sligo last weekend, our first on the level for 2016, continued our impressive statistic of having trained a flat winner each season for the last decade. Indeed, our small Co Meath-based yard has done well under both codes, as we have also enjoyed success from a limited number of National Hunt runners.

I was born and reared in Stepaside, close to Leopardstown Racecourse, and often accompanied my father to the races as a child. However, in those days the family were more into greyhounds, with Dad having as many as 40 in his care at any one time. While he primarily trained dogs for coursing, we also had a few runners on the track and I enjoyed following their fortunes as we travelled around the country.

I recall that we did have the odd pony at home in my primary school years but they were more for my sisters as the lads were big into GAA and other sports. My teenage years were spent as a boarder in St Pat’s College in Cavan where I never had any exposure to horses or racing. Gaelic Football was the predominant sport in the county and I was fortunate enough to represent St Pat’s in the McCrory Cup Senior Final (Ulster Colleges), one of the last sides from our college to do so.

DIFFERENT PIES

Aside from training dogs, my father owned a pub in Dublin and a farm in Cavan, so as soon as I finished my education I joined the family business. I suppose one could say I had my finger in a number of pies and worked in different parts of the country on different days of the week.

By this time Dad had got involved in racehorse syndicates and over the next couple of years he had horses with Bill Durkan, Sean Treacy and Martin Lynch. In 1993, we sold the pub in Dublin and moved down to Co Meath where Dad bought a farm. He took a couple of broodmares with him and after building stables in the new yard, we invested in a few more mares of our own. In time these mares produced foals and eventually the offspring needed to be broken.

However, having sent three yearlings away to be broken, with the result that the trio all returned with injuries, we decided to break our own stock on the farm.

LICENCE

I applied for a restricted trainers’ licence in 2005 and had my first runners on the track just before Christmas. The following season 2006/07, Lady Bolino became my first winner, when victorious in a bumper at Downpatrick. Despite this early success, I had little luck with jumping horses (Lady Bolino broke down badly over hurdles), finding the flat altogether more rewarding.

When the recession hit in 2007, I decided to concentrate on the level, buying cheap yearlings and racing them ourselves. The first season I adopted that policy I bought three yearlings; two won, while the third was placed second on four occasions.

Every year since then I have continued in the same vein and produced juvenile winners such as Admiraloftheboyne, Going Gaga, Battleroftheboyne, Tough As Nails and Chips Are Down. Indeed our small yard has developed something of a reputation for producing two-year-old winners and we have the distinction of sending out the first ever winners of leading sires Dandy Man and Dark Angel.

FAMILY BUSINESS

We are a real family-run operation and everything is done in-house. My two nephews Ross and Jamie O’Sullivan hold amateur licences and ride out, while the latter is also our farrier. Paddy Magee and James Farrelly are also very important members of our team and they are in the yard every day. My father Larry senior has been a great supporter from the outset, while my brother Larry junior does a huge amount of work behind the scenes.

We have 11 horses riding out at the moment, with space for up to 26 in the yard. The facilities are second to none with a horsewalker, indoor arena (60x80), American-style barn, four-furlong all-weather sand gallop and 440 acres of land. Having done so well with cheaply bought horses (I have never paid more than €12,000 for a yearling), it would be fantastic to get an order from one of the bigger boys and compete at a higher level.

Michael Mulvany was in conversation with John O’Riordan