Elaine and Declan O’Farrell are very involved in the racing industry and their sign business Race Displays brings them to every race meeting on the Irish calendar. As well as sponsorship signs, they make winners’ rugs and number cloths.

How did you get interested in racing?

I’m originally from Cork and we grew up more around greyhounds than anything else. I was friends with Josephine Moore of Ballincurrig House Stud. I ended up going point-to-pointing with them every Sunday. I have an interest in the horses since then. Then I met my husband Declan and he had a few horses so, yeah, it just all kind came from there I suppose.

So, tell us about Folly Master who won on Monday, where did you come across him?

We had a lovely horse called Mr Bercow who won his point-to-point and won a chase in Down Royal. He unfortunately took a heart attack on the gallops not long after winning. We were kind of at a loss when he died.

Jim Dreaper called us over to have a look at a horse who he had in the field. He thought he might suit us. He actually bought him himself so we figured if he was good enough for Jim, he would be good enough for us. So that’s how we bought him.

Jim and his son Thomas always source our horses so we go along with what they say. To be fair, to the lads they always turn up with the goods. Jim would be God in our house so I suppose that makes Thomas the saviour!

So, tell us about the win last Monday, He won very well under a stylish ride from Keith Donoghue.

I knew when Keith had the red gloves on that we were in business! Keith was excellent on him and he has been a good asset for Jim to call on over the years. He schooled him the week before. He is into knowing what he has before he goes to the races and does all his homework. He is just class. He is a proper horseman. He knows the time of day.

Jumping the last hurdle last Monday, he certainly had our hearts racing. I was getting visions of Paul Carberry on Harchibald. But Keith always delivers and he certainly delivered last Monday. It is great to see him doing so well. He is such a hardworking lad and is one of the good guys in the weigh-room.

What is next on the agenda for Folly Master?

We haven’t really discussed it. As I said, we leave everything to Jim and Thomas. Whatever they want to do, we will leave them at it. Our first love would be staying chasers. We think he could develop into a staying chaser with a bit of luck. He seems to stay very well and he has some jumping ability.

We think he will probably go down the staying chaser road and whether he jumps another hurdle before that or not I’m not sure but, as I said, we will leave it to the lads. He is still only a six-year-old so he is still finding his way.

You and Declan have built up a great relationship with Jim Dreaper over the years and you have never really gone elsewhere.

Declan knew Jim back before I even met Declan. They were neighbours. Declan had his first horse with Jim almost 30 years ago and it just developed from there. Jim is very honest and straightforward. We really like the set up down there. They do what suits the horse.

This history of the yard and the whole place is a big appeal as well. Thomas has been a brilliant addition to the yard as well since he came back from England a good few years ago. I remember he wasn’t long home when he suggested he bring a good horse of ours, Retrieve The Legend, to Perth. I think Jim was a bit horrified at the idea but Thomas knew what he was doing and, sure enough, the horse won. Jim and Thomas are so easy to get on with and they know what they are doing so it just suits us.

You and Declan have a company together called Race Displays that provides a lot of the signage at the racecourses. How did that business come about?

I was working at the bank at the time and Declan had the sign business already. So, I took a year out and we decided to see if we could sell a few signs at the races. I suppose at the time, around 1999, Horse Racing Ireland was about to start and the the whole online business for bookmakers was taking off. The bookies kind of wanted to do more marketing and get their brand out there a bit.

We just started by doing a few small jobs for John Boyle of BoyleSports. As they began to grow, we kind of grew as well. That is how it got going, really, and it started to grow very quickly from an early stage. You go racing one day of the week, then it goes to two, then suddenly we were going to every meeting. We came up with more things over the years like the winning rugs and branded buckets and all that helped us grow.

And you have recently got involved in the new sectional timing rollout and have been part of that process.

Yeah, that started up in the last couple of years we had to do a lot of trials with trackers inserted into saddlecloths. Since January 1st this year the system is live on every Irish racecourse. The technology is provided by Coursetracker who are contracted by Racing TV. Our role is to get all the equipment on track and get all the the trackers assigned to each runner on the day.

Two trackers go into each racing cloth. The data goes live on Racing TV and it is picked up on the website then afterwards. It’s very good for seeing if your horse has stayed or didn’t stay or what pace the race was run at. It’s very informative.

That sectional timing system was long overdue. Isn’t it great to see that it is up and running?

It was yeah, we had to do a lot of trials. I suppose the big thing was track measuring and making sure the distances were all spot on. Also getting good enough internet at all the tracks was a huge thing as well because the trackers need good signal to operate.

A couple of things like that in the background needed to happen for it to work. But it’s all come to fruition now and it’s all systems go.

It will probably take about 12 months before we can fully get an understanding of the data because of different tracks and different grounds are all variables. But, look, hopefully it’ll bring the game on and entice more people into racing.