TWO roles converged at Down Royal last Thursday week, when in my position as racecourse commentator, I got to call home Roi Mage, a horse I helped prepare as assistant trainer to my dad, Patrick (Griffin).

Having been quite confident about the former French-trained gelding on his second Irish start, I would like to think that I remained professional and fully impartial throughout the race and the viewer wouldn’t have noticed any connection.

All roads now lead to Aintree, where hopefully ‘Frenchie’ will take in the Topham Chase, if he fails to make the cut for the Grand National itself.

Grand National

Both sides of my family are steeped in horses and racing. My grandfather on my father’s side owned Umm, winner of the 1955 Irish Grand National, while my mother’s family, the Longs of Swords, have been hunting and point-to-pointing for generations.

First time round, Dad trained horses of the calibre of Feltrim Hill Lad, Conn Hull, Refute, Wingate, Cathom and Artic Gossip. Before that, he had been a successful amateur, who served his time with Georgie Wells. Although Dad had retired from training in 1994, there were still horses and ponies about the place when I was growing up.

I always wanted to train horses myself and with the home bred mare Dontcallerthat proving the catalyst, Dad renewed his licence in 2007.

Point

Two years later, the mare, bred by my father and owned by my mother Frankie, won her point-to-point at Taylorstown in my grandfather Longs’ colours. I trained the daughter of Anshan for that success and was also the winning jockey.

Second time round, with me acting as assistant, Dad sent out winners such as Maggio (seven wins, two listed), Heist (eight wins), Chitu (three wins from five runs), and Sudski Star (five handicap wins from six).

Now, we have our latest winner, Roi Mage, who has the back class in France to become a rival to Maggio as the best we’ve had so far.

Education

In 2000, at the age of 15, I left home to further my education with Henrietta Knight in England. It was a golden era for her yard, with horses of the calibre of Best Mate and Edredon Bleu in training. While I never tried to ride under rules during those years, I learned so much from schooling and riding work. Henrietta and Terry (Biddlecombe) were very good to me and Hen still is to this day.

I spent the summer of 2002 with John Dunlop where I looked after future leading stallion Invincible Spirit and used to ride out Big Bad Bob. In 2003, the year he won the Irish Derby with Alamshar, I worked for John Oxx. I was fortunate to be able to say I sat on Caradak and Azamour as two-year-olds. He was an absolute gentleman to have anything to do with. I really enjoyed my time there, working alongside the likes of Fran Berry, Johnny Murtagh and Slim O’Neill.

Best boss

A year later, I completed the penultimate stage of my racing education, joining Dessie Hughes. He was without question, the best boss I ever worked for - he had time for everyone and if you were willing to learn, he was prepared to teach you, and I’d like to think that’s a trait I’ve taken with me. With horses such as Hardy Eustace and Central House in his care, he was right at the top of his profession.

I rode in point-to-points and on the track during those years as well (2004-2008), partnering nine winners from close to a 100 rides. The year Alexandrova won the Irish Oaks (2006), I was the MC at the Curragh for the first time. Initially it was just post-race presentations but soon became post-race interviews and small productions such as the Morning Line on classic days.

After subsequently being approached by Robert Hall of RTÉ Racing, I ended up working as a graphic author for the national broadcaster for four years. I also had my first experience of commentating here, when covering the races off air which were replayed to viewers later that afternoon.

All of this overlapped with me working at home with Dad, who had started back training again.

In 2010, I spent eight months as assistant trainer to Nigel Hawke in Britain; the final placement in my education. It was during that time, I met Mike Deren, a man who was to help our small family run business at home. Mike (Deren) had bought a few horses and very kindly agreed to send them to our yard in Co Dublin.

So, after a short stint with Nigel Hawke, I packed my bags and came home to assist Dad. Dica, one of the first horses we received from Mike Deren, came out and won his maiden hurdle on his debut at Musselburgh at odds of 100/1.

Encounter

That same year (2010), I commentated on our local point-to-point at The Folly. For the next couple of years that was the extent of my involvement behind the microphone until a chance encounter with Jerry Hannon at Thurles one afternoon. I asked if there was any chance of giving it a go - not realising that the panel were actually doing auditions at that time.

Jerry (Hannon) asked if I could come back and do a race the following Thursday and it went from there.

I did Down Royal that St Stephen’s Day and was invited onto the panel shortly after. At the present time, there are six of us on that panel, with Jerry (Hannon) overseeing everything and looking after us all and he is always generous with his advice and as senior commentator that is invaluable to the likes of myself.

Retired

Douglas Pryde subsequently bought Maggio and when he retired him, he gifted him to me for a home for life and always said if I ever found another one to let him know. James Reveley, a dual champion jockey in France, is a good friend of mine and has ridden a number of our winners. He came up with two horses last autumn he thought would suit Douglas from which Roi Mage stood out. The deal was done in November, with the horse arriving in our yard in mid-December.

Classy

From day one, he looked a classy individual. Following a hugely encouraging Irish debut at Gowran Park, I was pretty confident he would win at Down Royal. It is exciting to have a real live Grand National contender, maybe not this year (52 on list) but certainly for 2023. He has been raised to 150 in Britain following his recent win, so we will protect that mark for next year. If he doesn’t get in the big race, he will run in the Topham Chase.

It’s a real family run operation here, with Dad overseeing the stud and the feeding and myself doing the physical labour plus race planning/jockey bookings and the most important job goes to my mother (Frankie) who’s dons the colours with the Lourdes holy water.

James Griffin was in conversation with John O’Riordan