COURSE choices and career plans are always topical at the start of the college year. For Fergal Birrane, there was never any wavering over his career path. “Horses, it was always going to be horses one way or another,” said the Killala racehorse trainer, one of the stars of Horse Racing Ireland’s recent video campaign.

Not that he grew up around horses at home, “a grocery shop right in the middle of the town,” owned by his parents, John and Maura. The first introduction to the horse world was courtesy of Padraic Judge. “Padraic is my first cousin, he jumped internationally and it was him that introduced me to horses at the start. From a young age, I was always mad into horse and ponies but my parents wouldn’t buy one for me so, when I was about 14, I ended up getting a coloured cob.

“I jumped him in ponies first and we qualified actually for the winter indoor finals at Sligo but he fell on me in the pocket and I broke my ankle. Padraic took him over and he won the two finals in Sligo on the one day. Then he went on to qualify for the Boomerang final at Millstreet and won the Dublin qualifier too. He was like a little carthorse but he jumped and won an awful lot against the horses. I kept him even though I was getting a lot of money for him. Gingala was his name.”

Was he by Ginger Dick? “Yes but there were two stallions with that name in Mayo,” he replied, piecing together another jigsaw piece in Mayo’s equine history. Twelve years ago I’d seen Ailish Cunniffe, daughter of Whipstick Farm’s Frank Cunniffe, compete at Devon Horse Show on the imported Ginger Dawn. That palomino mare’s sire Ginger Dick turned out not to be Owen Hallinan’s stallion in Killawalla but a namesake show jumping pony stallion.

“My uncle Jackie Judge owned that Ginger Dick, the pony jumped up to Grade A three times over and came originally from Joe Sweeney,” explained Fergal, who had built up a sideline by breaking and training ponies. “They’d often be going to Goresbridge or Cavan, the sales had started up there by then.”

After his Leaving Cert, he started a brand-new equine studies course. “It was the first equine science course held in New Inn, combined with Ralph Conroy’s yard and I went to Philip [Scott] for work experience. Then I passed my BHSAI and ICES instructors exams.

“Philip helped me out a lot, you can do as many courses as you want but you have to get into the right yard. He was brilliant and the way he ran the yard...it was run with military precision, everything was about a routine and Philip only had to tell you once how to do something!

“I was there for nine years, teaching and breaking horses and ponies, there was every mix of horses; thoroughbreds, eventers, show horses, Connemaras and I got a great schooling. Bernie, Philip’s father, was a brilliant jockey in his time and we had some great conversations.”

Dublin was the yard’s ‘mecca’. “That was our goal every year and Dublin was my holiday every year. Ballina Show would be another favourite, Tullamore or down to Piltown to Iverk Show, there was always a great atmosphere there.”

Switched on

Towards the end of Fergal’s spell at Scott’s yard in Knockmore, began Fergal’s association with Leader Star, one of the most famous broodmares to grace Irish showrings. Bred in 1994 by Luke Morley near Knock, she was by the well-known event and show horse sire I’m A Star out of the Pride of Shaunlara mare and Cavan buy, Oh Carol. Sold later to Sligo veterinary surgeon Jim Tempany, she bowed out from the showing circuit on a winning note after recording her fourth Coote Cup broodmare championship at Dublin in 2010.

Seven years previously, she had won the ridden hunter mare title there before going on to win the 2005 Breeders Championship with Tireragh Eternal Optimist, her Big Sink Hope filly foal, at foot.

“I met Jim towards the end of that time working at Philip’s yard and started helping him show his mares and foals. Leader Star was brilliant, she won everything there was to be won one year in 2005; Dublin, the Tullamore Dew broodmare final at Iverk, the Limerick Matron and the Lannegan championship at Ballinrobe.

“The thing was, she loved showing. When you’d be plaiting and getting her ready, she’d be as quiet as could be but as soon as she stepped into the ring, she just switched on and would step out to really do herself justice. Luke would come to all the shows all over the country, he loved to see her winning.”

Fergal moved home to help out in the family grocery shop while keeping up his sideline business. “I had the use of a sand arena in the town to work on the horses as well as helping in the shop and I took out my amateur licence to ride in bumpers, then I took out my national hunt trainers permit. That was in 2003.

“I always took an interest in racing. My great-grand uncles went to Kentucky, that’s where that interest came out of, that line. Their names were Dan and Anthony McGowan, they’d be far out relations of Lily McGowan,” he explained, refererring to the gifted Foxford horsewoman.

He started taking in a couple of National Hunt horses and riding in bumper races until an accident brought his jockey career to a close. “I had this one mare and I rode in a race in Kilbeggan as we were getting ready to go to Galway the following week. I was up in about fourth place coming round the bend, going down the hill and didn’t she break her front leg and came down. I was very lucky that day with horses coming behind me, so I gave up the racing, just to get out in one piece and concentrated on training National Hunt horses.”

Ger Hussey was one of his first customers. “He’s from Westmeath and he’s a trainer now himself, he gave me a mare called Ray’s Venture and I was running her for a good few years and to keep my licence going.”

Is there a major difference in training sport horses and thoroughbreds? “Sport horses are kind of harder work in a way! With show jumping and dressage, you’re putting a lot of specialised training into them, whereas with the racehorses, it’s more straightforward, especially flat racing.”

Then there was the gigantic Dervish. “P.J. Munnelly came to me, he’s actually a local man and now living in Athlone. He gave me a lot of sport horses to break and train, including Dervish. He was 18.3, he was huge, a huge horse altogether. I broke him and started showing him. At the time I was big into hunting and was elected chairman of the North Mayo Harriers for four years and I hunted a lot of these young horses I was breaking before they were sold.”

Dervish was never for sale though and went on to give Fergal one of his best Dublin days by winning the four-year-old working hunter class there in 2007.

“I jumped him in every four-year-old Dublin qualifier in every corner of the country but he had one fence down in every one of them. So we entered him for the working hunter class. There was 22 in the class and I was the only clear round and that’s what won it for him. First prize for that class was €4,500 and he came second in the championship. That was one of the best days I ever had.”

By the KWPN sire Aldato and out of a mare by the Euphemism son Silver Wonder, the home-bred Dervish returned to Dublin in later years to jump in the Puissance with John Floody. “I used to hunt him every week and that’s what made him jumping, Padraic [Judge] was a great help too coaching us.”

The Connolly family were more great clients. “Ted, John and Margo – she works in Horse Racing Ireland – Connolly gave me a lot of young horses to break and show. I remember showing a nice Colin Diamond horse for them in Dublin and I showed Millenium Cruise there as a two-year-old, Ted bought her as a foal from her breeder Derek Rothwell and then he bought her back as a broodmare,” he said about their 2011 Breeders Championship-winning mare.

Fergal Birrane showing Millennium Cruise as a two-year-old at Dublin Horse Show \ Susan Finnerty

Licence to train

By then Fergal was living in a Killala landmark. “There’s an estate here in the town, originally called Millers House but Killala House is the name. There was a syndicate that owned the house then, they were going building a golf course on Bartragh Island and I was kind of caretaking the house for them. One of the syndicate, the late Sean Sutton, he gave me nine or 10 horses to pretrain and I had the use of the yard for training them. That’s really how I came to be here.

“It was a huge estate,” explained Fergal, delving into its history. “In 1924, the Land Commission took a lot of the land from the lady who owned it [Miss Augusta Knox-Gore], she left and went back to England so the house was left empty for years. There’s great history to it. It was originally a stud farm and Bernie Scott, his father was the auctioneer when it was sold off, had all the history of the house and all the horses that was in it.”

Another dispersal sale was held for Lady Rathcavan. “She was across the road from Killala House. Lady Rathcavan hunted all over and brought in a lot of thoroughbred and sport horse mares. She had Hail Station and he bred a few nice event and show horses. I used to help her out with the horses until she sold everything off, she had about 40 or 50 horses, some of them with the real old breeding like Buckskin.

“Seamus McLoughlin had Clover Valley and another stallion man was Jim McDonnell, he had Mount Oriel. There was a lot of stallions around North Mayo, a lot of farmers bringing their mares to be covered by the local thoroughbred stallions and selling the foals and youngstock at fairs in Westport and Ballinasloe but that is going now. A lot have died and nobody to take the horses over.”

The house and estate changed hands again when Daniel McAuliffe bought the house and since 2015 has meticulously restored both to their former glory. “His business partner Anoj Dan had a lot of racehorses in training in England and he asked if I’d be interested in taking a few horses and of course I’d be very interested!”

Fergal set about obtaining his flat trainers licence five years ago. “I had to go up for a day for an interview, then there was an inspection by the Turf Club to see if everything was up to standard and if you tick all the boxes. Then the application goes to a committee,” explained Fergal, one of two racehorse trainers in County Mayo.

The superb facilities at Killala House Stables include a mile-long all-weather track, with its polyfibre surface brought in from Belgium, which took eight months to complete. “It’s five metres in width so you can gallop three horses together.” Another advantage is the nearby stunning beach where the horses are galloped and can enjoy Mother Nature’s aquatherapy sessions. Both of these facilities have paid off and November 3rd, 2017 is a date Fergal won’t forget when he recorded his first winner.

“I was nine months training and just getting places so I decided to go to the all-weather Dundalk. The next thing, we had nine winners in a row from only seven horses! Glenmoore, ridden by Padraig Begley, that was our first winner, Rockland Dandy won three races and California Lad won three races. It’s the same surface and the combination of working them on the beach and track just worked.”

Killala is the opposite side of the country to Dundalk, however, another discovery was that by taking the motorway to Dublin and then Dundalk, instead of cutting cross-country through Mullingar and Delvin, “the horses weren’t sweating and tired if you had gone that other way. It takes five hours of travel but the journey home is always a lot shorter with a winner!”

Fergal, who leases the stables, hopes to attract more owners and syndicates and his infectious enthusiasm and love of horses shone through in Horse Racing Ireland’s behind the scenes promotional video series. “HRI came up with this incentive and I’d have to thank [HRI’s] Caroline Townend too, it’s been a great success and they really have promoted ownership.”

Winner Alright: Racehorse trainer Fergal Birrane \ Healy Racing

Silver lining

He hopes to see some compromise measures put in place at racecourses so owners can watch their horses run. “I think owners should be let in, there’s a lot of space at racecourses now with no racegoers, couldn’t it be regulated to allow social distancing for owners so they can attend?”

Another hope is to provide local employment in a small town with a population of 1,000. Although on the Wild Atlantic Way, Killala tends to be overshadowed as a tourist spot. Until this pandemic summer.

“Before it was mostly foreign visitors passing through on their way to the Ceide Fields, now there’s cars with number plates from every county in Ireland. I suppose people are realising what Ireland has to offer. We’ve a greenway walk through the estate and people out walking can see the horses at work.

“There was a man watching them one day, he worked in Willie Mullins yard and he was visiting from Carlow for the first time.

“I think people are discovering Ireland instead of Spain this summer! Even talking to a local auctioneer recently... the amount of houses sold from north Mayo up to Enniscrone, Irish people are now buying them as holiday homes.”

Fergal’s wife Fiona, a Maths and Biology secondary school teacher, has recently started back to work in the ‘new normal’ classrooms of Moyne College in Ballina. There’s a ‘Sliding Doors’ element in how the couple met as Fiona had gone to Scott’s Barnfield House for lessons for nine years on Saturday morning. “But we’d never actually met as I was usually gone to shows! Until one Saturday, there were some English people flying over to compete at a show, Philip sent me along to help and Fiona was on Health and Safety duty at the show. That’s where we first met and we got on great. Then she was doing a dressage competition and I was judging, I gave her second place and never heard the end of it!”

Fiona is in charge of the accounts and paperwork and the couple have a three-year-old daughter, Annabelle. “She’s mad into horses and knows all of them by name.

“Doing the Leaving Cert and that Equine Science course really stood to me. I had something to fall back on, you always need something to fall back on,” said Fergal, reflecting on a career path that has brought him from those early days with Gingala to the winners enclosure.