Jack Moran has been involved in ownership since 1987, but it was only this year that he had his first winner... and then came four more. Jack and the various syndicates he is a part of have had great luck this year with the likes of dual-purpose campaigner Walhaan, Galway Festival scorer Granville Street and Dundalk winner The Mpex Kid.

How did you get interested in racing?

There were never any racehorses in our house growing up - we didn’t have the price for them. We did have a farm horse, and I used to be inclined to jump up on his back and ride him up and down the field with no saddle, bridle, or anything like that! I always enjoyed horses. Around 1987 or 1988, I went racing one day with one of my friends and we enjoyed it so much that on the way home we decided to buy a racehorse.

Can you remember any of the details about that first racehorse that you bought?

I can, she was called Bonny Uisce. She was by Over The River and was trained by Tom Lacy. She ran in a maiden hurdle at Navan first time out for us and broke her pelvis. We brought her home and let her stand in for four or five months. She still hadn’t healed up, so it was game over for her after only one run. From 1987 until now, I suppose I must have had about 20 horses. From 2018 to 2021 I was involved in six horses and they returned a total of only €1,000 combined. For years, if I had a runner on Sunday, I would celebrate on Saturday night in case I didn’t win - I had some fantastic Saturday nights over the years! It’s a long time from 1987 to 2023, but I finally got my first winner when Walhaan won a maiden hurdle in March at Leopardstown. Since then, I’ve had four more winners. We went 35 years without one winner - now we’ve had five in six months.

One of the five winners was Granville Street at the Galway Festival. There is a brilliant photo of you lifting the cup in the air, that must have been very special.

Granville Street won the mile-and-a-half handicap at Galway on Thursday and was second on Saturday as well for the Street Wise Syndicate. Listen, I have been going to Galway all my life and you’d always be looking around and thinking to yourself that you’d love to have one that could win there. It’d be amazing. When Ciaran bought Granville Street, he told me he was buying a Galway horse. I said nothing to him at the time, but I was thinking to myself that this is exactly what I want. Then when he was starting back in training, Ciaran told me he would do his level best to set this lad up for Galway - I was happy out with that plan. I told him if we can win at Galway, I will be absolutely delighted. As you can see, that photo tells its own story.

What’s next on the agenda for Granville Street?

He’s a lovely horse and is on his winter break now. He will be out again for a summer campaign and hopefully can get back to Galway. It’ll be April or May before we see him at a track.

You have had some nice wins with Walhaan as well, including recently at Dundalk.

He’s another nice horse - the first winner I’ve ever been involved in. That was a great day at Leopardstown. Shane Foley was riding him a fair bit on the flat and told us at one stage to stick him into a two-mile hurdle race. Eoin Walsh rode him that day at Leopardstown and got the job done on him. Then he won again at Dundalk recently. There’s a nice gang of lads in the Ask Dot Syndicate involved in him as well, which is always a help.

So, you are in charge of a couple of syndicates of the horses mentioned, can you give us an indication of how the process works in terms of setting up one?

Well, firstly I like syndicates of 10. Then I put a budget of around €200 a month per share. If you are one of the 10, then you get a 10% share. I’m always very careful to make sure the paperwork is in order so that everyone knows exactly where they stand in relation to the syndicate. People know exactly what it is going to cost to train the horse and what it is going to cost to buy the horse. That is all laid out in front of them before they invest. Then it’s all about communication and keeping people informed on when the horse is running, how he is doing and so on. When you start getting a few winners it gets a bit easier, obviously. I would like to take the chance to thank all the members of the syndicates for the different horses, as well as Ciaran for the fantastic job that he is doing with the horses.

Tell us more about Ciaran Murphy, things seem to be going well for him and he is highly regarded.

Yes, I think his horses are going very well. Ciaran won’t make any false promises. He works extremely hard. He took the licence over from Dot Love, who is still involved there, in January 2021 and had previously spent many years there at Charlestown in Mullingar, Co Westmeath. His wife Emily works just as hard, if not harder. He has 70 horses. He is up from half five in the morning and works all day, every day. He is fiercely honest and won’t murder you on price. He won’t do anything with a horse that he thinks they won’t be able for too. He would have often said to me that we are not ready to go. And we have to wait. He will always put your horse first - no matter what. He can train a horse just as well for a six-furlong sprint at Dundalk as he will for a Grand National. He ran Walhaan at Galway recently over an extended two and a half miles and all the pundits on the television were asking where we were going running a seven-furlong flat horse over that trip on soft ground. Well didn’t Walhaan run a fabulous third. He ran a brilliant race, and we laughed around the parade ring - you’d think we were after winning the race. That will give you an idea of Ciaran’s talent at sussing out the ability of an individual horse. I haven’t seen him wrong so far either.

So Walhaan himself then, what’s on the cards for him?

He will get a couple of spins around Dundalk. He might actually get an entry over Christmas in a hurdle. We could go that route with him. It’ll be down to Ciaran, but that’s what is what we’re thinking about. Little Keilee will also be aimed at the Galway Festival in 2024, along with Granville Street.