ON the Hennessy family farm, dairy cows pay the bills, while horses provide fun days out. Richard Hennessy grew up on the farm, was involved with the West Waterford Pony Club, and eventually graduated to riding point-to-pointers trained by his father Joseph. “You could go back to my grandfather with horses here,” Richard tells me.

After balancing his studies in WIT with riding out and riding four winners between the flags, Richard made the move, as many young Irish people do, to Australia, before coming back home to work on the farm. “After college, I went to Australia for two years and worked in racing while I was there. It was a fantastic environment and I loved every bit of working in Melbourne,” he recalls.

Having only sent out four runners since taking out a trainer’s licence, Local News’ 100/1 win in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Mares Maiden Hurdle at Cork last Sunday came as a complete shock to Richard and his family, and probably did make local news, amusingly. “They definitely heard us in Mallow!” he told me with a laugh, the excitement of the day still fresh in his mind.

“Initially, I was hoping she’d have a good run around, because our horses wouldn’t be sharp enough the first day. If she’d finished seventh or eighth it would have been a great run.”

An educational ride from Josh Williamson played a big part in the six-year-old debutante’s success, Richard explains: “She just got into it nicely, and Josh gave her a lovely introductory ride. He looks like a jockey with a bright future.

Daylight

“She had a bit of daylight and she just crept into it. He didn’t force her. Turning in, every time he asked her, she kept finding and that’s the one thing you have to give her great credit for. She stuck her neck out.”

Aside from the joy of training a winner, it was a family day out for the Hennessys. “My dad and my wife, who was there with the kids, were delighted,” he said. “We all got a great kick out of it. My sister and my wife and the three kids were very well looked after and they got their pictures taken. The kids took them into school the next day.”

With horses only being part-time for the Hennessy family, it’s days like last Sunday that keep the show on the road. “It’s all about everyone having a good day out, that’s what we all go racing for.”

Local News took some time to get to the track, as National Hunt horses can often do, but Richard knows that his patience has stood to her in the long run. “She had a few small niggles along the way. They’re small things that didn’t stop her training, but they stopped her getting to the races.

“She was actually broken a little bit late. She came in as a three-year-old and she had a very bad cough, so she wasn’t broken until October of that year. She wasn’t overly big either, so the time stood to her to let her strengthen up.”

The win was made even sweeter by the fact that Local News is home-bred. “My mother bought Local News’s granddam years ago, and she bred a Galway Plate winner, Bob Lingo in 2012. Local News is a descendant of that line,” he explained.

Broodmare band

“We have two or three broodmares, and we haven’t been overly successful at the sales, so we generally end up racing them ourselves,” Richard said before adding: “I definitely get more of a kick out of the racing than I do out of the breeding and selling aspect of it.”

After deciding not to put any mares in foal last year, the Hennessy family are in the process of covering their mares this year. “At the rate we were selling them, I had an over-supply of racehorses coming at me!” he admitted.

“As my mother reminds me all the time, the cows keep the horses, and it doesn’t work the other way around.”

As we talked about the future, Richard is looking forward to the opening of Tipperary’s new all-weather track, and hoping he can one day bring the flat racing knowledge he gained in Australia back to his farm in Waterford. “I’m looking forward to the all-weather track opening in Tipperary. I think it’ll be a massive benefit to the south side of the country. I’d love to train a few flat horses myself and see how it goes.”

For now, he’s eagerly awaiting the debut of Local News’ four-year-old brother. “At the moment, she’s the lead horse for her younger brother, hopefully he’ll run soon.”

With the work involved in running a dairy farm, let alone breeding and training as well, it’s no surprise to hear that the whole family is involved. “It’s a big team effort,” Richard tells me. “I ride out, my dad still rides, my wife rides out when required - she rode Local News in her last piece of work - and my sister will ride out on the weekends. The whole family is involved.”