OUR small family-run breeding operation received a real boost over the last few weeks with Moskovite winning twice over hurdles and her half-sister Moyhenna picking up blacktype over fences.

They are the latest homebred mares to taste success on the track; making it a perfect five from five for our broodmare band.

With one eye on the future, the two mares will be exciting additions to our breeding sheds when they retire from racing.

I come from a farming background and we had two workhorses [Queenie and Annie] at home when I was young.

My father was a keen racegoer and attended the local Western meetings each year. As I got older I took an interest in horses, particularly the breeding side.

Being the youngest of seven children, I was gifted the family farm upon which I developed a successful dairy enterprise.

Later, I built up a pasteurisation plant, selling milk to clients in Galway and Mayo. In the 1980s, I got out of that business, selling my milk quota in order to invest in the pub/restaurant trade.

I also bought my first racehorses around the same time. We’ve experienced plenty of highs and lows along the way, and while the recession was difficult for us, fortunately we have survived in racing and are now starting to enjoy the fruits of our labour.

FIRST RACEHORSE

Plovervale Boy, trained by Billy Bowers in Sligo, was the first racehorse I ever owned. I remember Billy working him on the beach in Rosses Point and he pulled well clear of the group.

Billy said to me “either the others are no good or your fella is a right good one.”

It turned out the others were definitely no good and my fella was only marginally better, but I didn’t deter.

My next purchase, Upper Rosses, won a bumper in Galway, giving me one of my greatest days in racing.

My parents and extended family were all at Ballybrit that afternoon shouting the horse home.

I then had a horse with a Galway man Val O’Brien. The horse was named after one of my pubs; the West on Bridge Street. That horse won a number of times over the years.

Around 2007, I changed tack and decided to buy a couple of mares with a view to breeding from them.

The first mare I bought, Savita, won five races and was blacktype-placed over fences. Savitha produced two winners: Reelingintheyears and Presavita.

I also bought her half-sister Wind Over Water, who went on to produce Solita, a mare who won seven times including a Grade 2 chase in Punchestown.

Moskova, who was trained on the flat by Declan Gillespie, proved to be one of our wisest purchases. She went on to win nine races in my colours, one on the flat and three Grade 3 chases, and later produced our current stars Moyhenna and Moskovite.

We also had Pontoon in training this year. She’s a full-sister to Moskovite, and Denis Hogan, our trainer, believed she may have been the best of them, but unfortunately she picked up a serious injury so we have her home now and she’s going to be covered by Westerner next month.

BROODMARE BAND

Another of our broodmare band, River Mill, produced three-time winner Theatre Mill and has a colt foal and two-year-old on the ground. Itllallendintears produced multiple winner Boruma, who’s still going well in England, and also has a lovely four-year-old gelding going to the track this year. We also have Robin the Pink, a half-sister to Solita, in foal with us. She had a nice colt foal last year and has a fine two-year-old gelding. These will be sold in a couple of years, along with Moskova’s most recent colt foal by Westerner. Our policy is to race the mares in order to maximise their breeding potential and sell the horses when possible.

My son Walter and some of his friends had a horse in training with Denis Hogan, so we got in touch with him and have never looked back. He has done incredibly well with Moyhenna and Moskovite and is a young man I rate very highly. He’s a gent to deal with, honest and straight. He’s the future, in my opinion.

If I had one piece of advice for owner/breeders like me it is to find a trainer you can trust and work together with, and with Denis I have certainly found that.

We continue to produce plenty of nice horses here at home and I am particularly excited by a Rock Of Gibraltar half-sister to Moyhenna/Moskovite. She is a beautiful and literally could be anything; it’s always good to dream.

Our success in some way vindicates the decisions we made in the bad times; retaining stock and keeping the ship steady when our backs were to the wall.

My sons, Robert and Walter, take an active interest in the running of the farm so I know that the future is in safe hands. Although both currently work in Dublin, they are home most weekends and help out whenever time permits.

All 16 boxes at the farm are currently full and we feel we have some exciting young horses coming through.

With Moyhenna and Moskovite to hopefully retire and join Pontoon in the coming years, the prospect of further success must be high.

Moskovite and Denis Hogan with the Hennelly Family after winning the O'Kelly Brothers Mares Handicap Hurdle at Limerick. Photo Healy Racing

Robert Hennelly was in conversation with John O’Riordan