WEXFORD handlers such as Donnchadh and Sean Doyle, Colin Bowe and Denis Murphy, have revolutionised the buying and selling of young horses through the point-to-point scene.

Unsurprisingly, their results both on the track and in the sales ring, have inspired a whole new generation of trainers from within the county to follow in their footsteps.

CORMAC DOYLE

Age: 24

Address: Ballindaggin, Co. Wexford

Horses in Training: 23

After a number of seasons shadowing his brother Sean’s operation, Cormac Doyle has stepped-out of his older sibling’s shadows and is quickly carving out a name for himself following just one full season of training.

“I was with Sean for a couple of years so I would have learned plenty from how things were done. The lads were always buying and selling half-breds from when I was young. There were always horses going from home to Goresbridge.

“I always wanted to go training myself so last year I got my own shed in our home place and it has gone from there.”

It was certainly a maiden season to remember for Doyle. Three winners by the season’s end, all within the ultra-competitive four-year-old division, were kicked off by the victory of Lady Avery at Borris House in December with just his third runner. However, that was merely a preamble to what would follow.

At Lismore in March, Doyle sent out The Dellercheckout to make a winning debut. The Getaway gelding had impressed all who were present at the Co. Waterford venue, and the four-year-old, whom the handler had purchased with jockey Rob James for €27,000 at the Derby Sale, set fireworks flying when he was offered at the Cheltenham Festival sale. After a bidding war, Ryan Mahon secured The Dellercheckout for John Hales with a final bid of £260,000. A dream result for the young pair.

Victory at Belclare for First Assignment who was later sold for £40,000, and a fine second-placed performance from Jan Maat, an Electric Beat gelding who has since joined Henry De Bromhead, capped-off an incredible debut season.

Unsurprisingly, hopes are high of adding to that this season.

“This is my biggest year. I bought a lot of my own, all three-year-olds. I always look for a big horse with a good step. As they are running in point-to-points at four or five, size is a big factor. Pedigree comes second after size.

“I have 18 three-year-olds in at the minute. It’s still only early days but there are two horses really catching my eye. A Califet gelding that came out of Goffs who is very nice. There is also a Presenting filly that I got from the Derby Sale out of a black type mare Premier Victory.”

Even for a trainer who has had his spending power bolstered by last season’s success, he faces stiff opposition both in the sales ring and on the track.

“The competition is just so high then when you do go to run a horse. I had a four-year-old run on Sunday at Ballinaboola and he just couldn’t lie up with them. The quality of horses now in point-to-points is incredible.”

ANDREW LATTA

Age: 27

Address: Ballycarney, Co. Wexford

Horses in Training: 14

Despite being just 27, Andrew Latta has experienced the highs of both sides of the game. As a jockey, he partnered subsequent Grade 1 winner Holywell to win his Kinsale maiden for Sean Doyle and as a handler he has been responsible for producing a sales-topper of his own.

The decision to call time on his riding career after 25 point-to-point winners came earlier than expected but it is not one that he looks back on with regret, as it came at a time of growth for the operation at home.

“Training wasn’t something I had on the agenda. I had planned to ride for a bit longer, but we had the few horses at home that we couldn’t get sold at the sales. I ended up having a few runners and the first couple won and got sold. It took off from there.

“I found that if I got injured riding that it was hard to get the horses done properly. I cracked my vertebrae twice and we were getting busier at home so I was having to concentrate on doing my own horses and then farming in the afternoon.”

Homebred horses provided Latta with the perfect start to his training career. His third winner, Stilletto, a Westerner gelding that was bred by his grandfather, won on debut.

“He was only broken as a four-year-old – he was massive. He was ready to run in the spring of his five-year-old career but I didn’t run him, I let him off for the summer and brought him back in and Barry (O’Neill) won on him first time at Maralin.

“He went on to the Cheltenham sales that November and topped the sales. He hadn’t left the yard more than five or six weeks when he won his maiden hurdle for Philip Hobbs which was really nice for us.”

That dream start was aided by successes with older horses which were influential in bolstering his reputation as a handler.

“I was very lucky when I started off. We had two four-year-old winners, a five-year-old and a couple of mares who all won. At the start it was just about getting winners and getting your name out there.

“In the last couple of years I have gone more towards buying my own younger horses to try and produce them for four and five-year-old maidens to sell on.”

That decision has been repaid with notable returns. Templemore winner The Fresh Prince, has already won twice for Oliver Sherwood and Trevor Hemmings, while Steal My Thunder, who was the last foal out of his father’s three-time track winner, Party Woman, finished second on his debut at Ballinaboola last year before being sold for £72,000.

Maintaining those successes remains challenging with a limited budget to head to the sales with, which has focussed his direction.

“The way that it has gone now, you can’t really look at the pedigree. It’s impossible to know how much horses are going to be making so I would really just look at the model and the walk. I look at the catalogue after that because there is no point in me picking out pedigrees that I like because you are not going to be able to afford them to go point-to-pointing.”

Unlucky not to get off the mark for the season on Sunday with Thunderosa, the 27-year-old will look to return to that early success of Stilletto, with his three-year-old half-brother by Yeats, who is the only one of the family’s homebreds that they have in training at present.

MARK SCALLAN

Age: 31

Address: Cleariestown, Co. Wexford

Horses in Training: 5

Mark Scallan is going against the grain in some ways. He is just one of a handful of people combining their careers in the saddle with a training career in the sport at present. With no fewer than 48 winners already under his belt in his role as a jockey, the decision to combine that with a training business has not proved easy. A fracture of his L1 vertebrae sustained in a hunting accident last season left him out of action for over four months, but the hard work has been rewarded.

His first winner, Brianstorm, epitomises the success that so many within the industry who are operating on a small budget are looking to achieve. The Brian Boru gelding was sourced for just €3,500 as a three-year-old, and eight months later, he had made all the running to win a 15-runner four-year-old maiden at Fairyhouse on debut.

“He was a very good walker, an athletic type of a horse. That’s what caught my eye. From day one, you were always happy with what he was doing. He was very forward and easy to do things with. He attacked his fences the whole time, he loved jumping.”

As the hammer fell at the Punchestown sale, the bay gelding was sold for €40,000, in a massive result for Scallan. It is no wonder that he described the moment as: “the greatest feeling of them all.”

That financial result was a great boost to his growing operation.

“It allowed us to put in a new gallop during the summer. Before that I never had one. We had to canter them around the fields or box them away to work. Brian Jordan has always been very good to me and I would take horses to work on his gallop. You could only really do two horses a day when you were having to take them away to work so I can do a few more now which is a great help.

“I ride out in the mornings for Brian and then do my own in the afternoon. They are busy days but I have got into a routine there every day which seems to be working. The likes of Andrew Walsh, Sean Staples and a couple of other local lads would help out riding bits of work or schooling and my father Fintan is a big help.”

That initial success has whet his appetite and he is working hard on growing his operation, but he is pragmatic about what he is taking on.

“When you don’t have the money to spend you’re obviously not able to get the big pedigree or anything like that so you are trying to get the horse that is a big of value that might turn into something. I would be looking for something with a nice walk with the size and scope. You have to forgive the pedigree sometimes.

“It’s hard to compete with the big lads but sure we have to keep trying to work our way up the ladder. That’s what it’s all about.”