TRACEY O’MEARA, Ireland’s first female clerk of the course, had her first official day in the job at Down Royal last Tuesday week and was pleased to report it was a trouble free day. Former clerk Brendan Sheridan was on hand “in case I needed assistance or wasn’t sure about anything”, she related but the only semblance of a problem was with the low-lying sun.

She said: “I’ve encountered it a few times and it was the only issue on the day. Hopefully they’ll all be like that!” Tramore native Tracey, who is in the process of relocating to Edgeworthstown in Co Longford, ideally situated for the four tracks she looks after, the others being Downpatrick, Kilbeggan and Sligo, successfully applied for the IHRB’s position as a part-time clerk of the course based in the midlands and started her role in December.

QUALIFIED

Educated to Masters level, she was well qualified for the job, having worked in that capacity in Britain as clerk of the course at Brighton and Fontwell for 12 months and as a racing executive in Lingfield for a further two years before that.

Her responsibilities there included compiling the welcoming address in the racecard and looking after the winning connections of each race, bringing them up to show them the replay and organising the prize giving.

“I had a good relationship with the flat jockeys and it was quite an interesting job. No two days were the same and it was a great stepping stone to going on to be a clerk,” she commented. “It gives you a greater understanding of what people do. I had 46 race days between Brighton and Fontwell as a clerk after that.”

Tracey had set herself a limit of spending five years in Britain to find a well-paid job with horses but “thankfully came home after three. I was lucky that I was home on holidays for three weeks when I saw the job advertised in The Irish Field.”

It comes as no surprise for someone whose father Seamus was the course foreman at Tramore until his retirement 10 or 12 years ago to learn that this was where she got her early grounding from the age of 17, spending two summers with Sue Phelan during the summer holidays while she was at college.

EXPERIENCE

She enthused: “Sue gave me great experience and I would have worked there on race days, out on the track with Paddy Graffin and in the office. It’s probably thanks to Sue that I got the grounding I did and she gave me great opportunities.

“I made connections there and built up relationships with everybody from the clerk of the scales to the starter.

“When I was in school I didn’t have the focus of a clear career path for what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to work with horses but my father always said to keep it as a hobby and get my education.

“I was involved in a sales yard with sport horses but my friends all went away from it in their 20s and I saw that. It changed my outlook and made me focus more on getting my education and a good job.”

The 34-year-old was fortunate to secure her first job across the water at Lingfield because that racecourse is one of 16 tracks in England owned by Arena Racing and, when a vacancy for a trainee clerk of the course came up, Tracey landed the position.

She explained: “Over there, the majority of courses have their own clerk and no-one has more than two tracks to look after. I was lucky that, having Brighton and Fontwell, meant that I was working under both codes (of racing) as well, although my preference is for National Hunt racing.”

TEAM

From her early days at Tramore, Tracey recognises the importance of having a good team of ground staff, and recalled: “I had two great teams and got a lot of guidance from the head groundsmen who had extensive knowledge and weren’t afraid to share it with you.”

She singled out Richard Langley as being a great help during her time at Brighton, where the official going had to be posted as early as 6.40am on the morning of an evening fixture but said: “If you weren’t pulling your weight, he’d let you know as well!”

In recent years, being a clerk of the course in both Britain and Ireland has been a trying and difficult time, the dry, hot summer of 2018 in particular. “Fontwell wasn’t too badly affected because they have a six-week break during the summer,” Tracey remembers. “But Brighton watered 24 hours a day on occasions coming up to a race fixture. You have to manage teams of people and that brings different challenges.”

Looking back, she said: “This winter has been quite strange, with the going much quicker than anyone could have anticipated and it has been hard for trainers who are probably under pressure from owners – hopefully it was just one of those freak years.”

O’Meara, who hunted for 23 seasons, most recently with the Woodstown Harriers, and enjoys reading, Pilates, going to night school classes and expanding her knowledge, has covered a lot of ground to get to where she is today but lives by the mantra: ‘Every day is a school day and you learn something every day.’

She added: “Joe (Collins, the former senior clerk of the course who is acting in an advisory capacity at Down Royal) was very helpful on the day. I’ve met him on a few occasions and he has so much experience. The track was everything you could have wanted for the first day under the new management and there was a real feel good factor afterwards.”

PREPARATION

As preparation for her current role with the IHRB, Tracey spent several days shadowing Lorcan Wyer, Paddy Graffin, Val O’Connell and Brendan Sheridan and said: “It’s nice to have their support because trainers don’t know me per se and the jockeys don’t know me either.

“It’s good for them to have someone they’re familiar with but the jockeys have their job to do and I have mine, so we keep it on a professional basis. They recognise that you are there to look out for them and it takes a while to build up relationships but that will come in time.

“The clerks were all helpful in their own way and it’s hard to say if one was better than the other but they’ve all been great with their support and you pick up things from them. They’re always at the end of the ‘phone if you have a question and it’s an advantage, as well, that I would have known them in a different capacity from when I was in Tramore.

“The BHA gives you great training and I completed mine under the guidance of Arena’s Charlie Moore and Ed Arkell who used to be the clerk at Goodwood. I spent days with 16 different clerks at places like Epsom, Sandown, Newton Abbot and Market Rasen and already had five days done here off my own back at Gowran Park, Laytown, the Curragh, Tipperary and Wexford. I did that during my six months training because the BHA look more favourably on you if you can extend your experience outside Britian.

PRESSURE

“Things are done differently in Britain where the BHA is under huge pressure from the animal rights people and the like but I think common sense prevails a lot more in this country.”

For example, the use of the going stick is compulsory in England and it is quite controversial according to Tracey who commented: “It’s probably a useful tool but I hope they don’t implement it here. We used it a lot in Fontwell but it’s not foolproof – two different people can get a completely different reading and, after all the going is always a matter of opinion, so it’s bound to be subjective.”

She concluded: “I gained great experience in England but it’s lovely to come home.”

The next stop for Tracey is a return to Down Royal on March 16th.