My parents used the proceeds of that work to relocate to Malta, where I was born and spent my formative years. At four years old, my parents took me racing for the first time and I have been hooked ever since. As the years went by, I got my parents interested in the sport, rather than the other way around.

When it was time for me to start school, my parents decided to return to Britain. They bought a house in Oxford which was to prove of great benefit to me in later years as it was very central to a number of racecourses! I went racing at every opportunity and it didn’t take me long to realise that I wanted to forge a career within the industry.

My parents had put money aside for my secondary education but fortunately I gained a free scholarship and somehow I managed to convince them that the money should be used to buy a racehorse instead! The subsequent purchase, Son Of A Gunner, turned out to be well above average, being rated the top British juvenile hurdler of his year and finishing fifth in the Triumph Hurdle.

OXFORD

After I completed my secondary education, I went on to Oxford University where I studied Egyptology, although I spent more time reading the form book than hieroglyphics!

During my time in college, my family bought a horse with Henrietta Knight, who was just starting out as a trainer. It was a wonderful time to be involved in the yard and I really enjoyed going down there and feeling part of the team. When I finished college in 1991, I spent two years working as Henrietta’s private handicapper. In 1993, I moved on to work for the BHB, starting as an administrative assistant in the Race Planning Department. Over the next seven years I worked my way up the ladder and by 2000, I had become assistant racing director.

However, following a chance conversation with Brian Kavanagh at a European Pattern Committee dinner in Dublin, my career was set to take a different turn. Brian had just left his role as manager of the Curragh Racecourse in order to take up the post of CEO of the Turf Club. As I sat next to him at the dinner, he mentioned that he was looking for someone to take over the vacant position at the Curragh.

I went home the next day and asked my wife how she felt about moving to Ireland. As our children had not yet started school, she agreed that if we were ever going to make such a move, it was the right time. So I threw my hat in the ring and in April 2000, I was lucky enough to move over to Ireland to become manager of the Curragh Racecourse and training grounds. I spent exactly two years in the job before I was on the move again, this time to HRI, where I became director of racing. I had really enjoyed my time at the Curragh but the HRI role was always my dream job and it was too good an opportunity to turn down. 

As HRI’s Director Of Racing, I have a much broader remit than my British counterpart. Aside from my core duties of producing the annual fixture list, creating the race programmes and managing the prize money budget, I am also involved in all the administration of race entries, declarations and horse ownership registrations, overseeing capital expenditure and improvements at Irish racecourses, providing the racecourse integrity services for the Turf Club and negotiating commercial picture deals with SIS and ATR. 

GAA CLUB

Outside of racing, I am heavily involved with my local GAA club in Athgarvan, where I coach my four children in their respective juvenile teams. A few seasons back I had Kevin Manning’s son, James, on a team in a county final and believe me, the pressure of having Jim Bolger watching his grandson from the sideline is far greater than anything I have come up against in HRI! We were getting hammered at half time but thankfully James led an amazing second half revival and our club won the match in question, despite rather than because of the coach I suspect!

The Irish racing community is much smaller and tighter knit than in Britain and consequently you know far more people here, which is a big positive. Everyone is working for the common good of the industry and I am privileged to be able to play my part in some small way.

One of my proudest achievements was overseeing the development of the all weather track at Dundalk. While other similar projects in Britain and the US have got it expensively wrong, Dundalk has stood the test of time, both in terms of configuration and racing surface. Hopefully the major racecourse redevelopments in the pipeline will be similarly successful.

Jason Morris was in conversation with John O’Riordan