LAST Ammo was only our sixth ever runner at the Galway Festival, so it was fantastic to get a winner on the board with him at Ballybrit.

By the time Galway comes around, oftentimes our horses have been busy or maybe aren’t particularly well handicapped. I probably would have put Last Ammo in that bracket too before heading there on Wednesday.

Just because you haven’t been to Galway doesn’t mean they won’t be uniquely suited to it, though, and I think there was an element of that in his performance this week.

We’re based in the Granagh-Ballingarry area in Co Limerick, and the Rock Bar Syndicate hail from Granagh. The owners got a massive kick out of it. First Limerick win the All-Ireland Hurling Final and now they have a winner at Galway - it’s pure heaven for these guys!

Syndicate celebrations

I’m sure they probably had a late night back at the bar, but we as a family are holidaying in West Cork at the moment so I high-tailed it back to there after racing. I messaged them on Thursday morning to assure them the horse was probably feeling a nice bit better than plenty of those in the syndicate! I’m sure we’ll have a night out with the lads over the coming days.

I must say, Jack Kearney deserves a huge amount of credit because he had an absolute dream run through the race. It was like watching an old head on young shoulders.

I only realised on Wednesday night that he has ridden all four of my winners on the flat this year, as well as plenty of seconds. We’ve had deadly luck together and I love the idea that there’s a young guy there finding his feet in this game. A winner like that will be a help to him, and hopefully it will be a help to me too.

We’ve run 11 different horses this year and have come away with six winners, as well as 16 seconds - it’s been the most extraordinary situation with that number of seconds but I’m not sure many were unlucky in defeat. As I think many trainers will tell you, the most important thing is that they are running predictably and running as well as they can when presented with an opportunity to be competitive.

Positive response

You can’t get upset about not winning in this country because - without doubt - it’s a complete cauldron here. You have to stay working away and good things do happen.

It’s huge for us to have a winner at this meeting. I watched back RTÉ’s coverage of the race later that night and it’s lovely to have Jane Mangan, Barry Geraghty and Davy Russell saying positive things about us.

As well as that, my wife, who has a very limited interest in racing, is getting texts from many people who had seen us having a Galway winner. The exposure that comes from a winner like this is incredible.

To call a spade a spade, the type of race we won at Galway is on every week in Ireland but because it’s at Galway everyone is watching, which is terrific. It’s a great platform that couldn’t have come at a better time.