WE all know what is said about Jack and all the trades but Eamon Cleary, who knows a thing or two about the trades as a builder, has managed top-flight success at almost everything he has turned his hand to.

An All-Star hurler with Wexford, breeder of multiple Grade 1-winning mare and Champion Hurdle victor Annie Power, and just recently, owner of Irish Greyhound Derby victor, Ballyanne Sim. Cleary has mastered most things he has turned his hand to, having also operated at a high level in Gaelic football and handball.

His is a remarkable story, an encapsulation of the dream that motivates so many, not least in the thoroughbred industry.

GAA was always at the core of family activities. His late father Simmy and mother Kitty were outdoor people. Eamon revelled in nature and remains fascinated by it to this day. While no longer involved with his home club Rathgarogue-Cushinstown, he rarely misses a Wexford game and is at some sort of match every weekend.

FAMILY INSPIRATION

Simmy always had a few greyhounds and pups knocking around in Ballyanne and it is fitting that a dog bearing his name would win the Derby in record time, sparking raucous celebrations that while dying down, are ongoing, as the cup does a tour of the tracks. He was the outsider of the field at 12/1 but connections exuded confidence and backed that faith in availing of the 20/1 morning price.

Placing names of import and significance on sports animals is not a new concept but we regularly see the reality not adding up to the aspiration.

Cleary’s eye for real talent is illustrated by his patience in waiting for what he perceived to be a champion before attaching the cherished moniker. Ballyanne Sim was ready for deployment to the right dog, once he showed himself.

So it was with Annie Power. She was named in memory of Cleary’s grandmother, who fought off the Black and Tans after they had burned the family home to the ground. Cleary has fond memories of listening to her stories of living on the run in hedges and resolved to honour her as best he could.

It was only when she the daughter of Shirocco and his Old Vic mare Anno Luce was finally ready to run and he was sure she was special that he bestowed upon her, the responsibility of bringing Nana Power to the big stage.

That worked out well too. Annie Power won two bumpers when trained by Jim Bolger, with whom he had become friendly through hurling. That was enough for Rich Ricci to buy her. Under the guidance of Willie Mullins, she registered 15 triumphs from 17 attempts, five of those at Grade 1 level.

Most memorable of those was a redemptive victory in the 2016 Champion Hurdle, having fallen when pulverising the opposition at the last in the Mares’ Hurdle 12 months previously, and been second in her only other career defeat, in the 2014 World Hurdle.

Cleary travelled every step of the way with his pride and joy and is tickled pink that the horse he bred to be an Oaks winner is now part of the Coolmore band of broodmares and in foal to the king of all stallions, Galileo.

UNCONVENTIONAL

There are numerous examples of people with no background in thoroughbreds flourishing in the industry and Cleary’s route to breeding horses was certainly unconventional.

“When I was young we used to go to Tramore races on the 15th of August, which was a Holy day at the time. That was a family day for us in the ‘70s and early ‘80s. That was the nearest thing to a horse I ever saw,” recalls Cleary.

Fate intervened when he began working at Kildangan Stud, the start of 26 years building sheds, barns, offices and everything else at Darley’s Irish farms and premises.

He started buying greyhounds as soon as he was earning a wage packet – it was what he knew but also a welcome outlet away from the pressures of top-level hurling.

While he only ever dabbled in breeding with dogs and focussed on buying and selling, his exposure to the Darley business inched him towards trying his hand at producing champion thoroughbreds.

“I bought my first mare in foal about 12 or 14 years ago. She had a colt foal and I sold that for more than the price of the mare so I sort of had a free mare. I bred her again and bred her again. That got me started and I ended up with three mares then. Darley were doing a deal for employees too which was a big help at the time.”

It is one thing wiping your face when it’s your hobby. He is operating more seriously now and it is a high-stakes game.

“It sure is, especially in the climate we’re in now ‘cos things are fairly hairy out there. It’s tough. I’d say Brexit will have a big effect. Things aren’t going well in London, probably because of Brexit. Property is down 25% in London. If they’re jittery over there, we’re in trouble over here.”

SMALL SCALE OPERATION

He breeds from Oghill House Stud, just outside Monasterevin, and operating on a budget, is looking to get ahead of the curve when identifying suitable stallions for his mares.

“They won’t be going to Galileo anyway!” he jokes.

“I like new-season sires. I think that’s the best chance for a small breeder, to pick a first-time stallion that’s a likely prospect. I’ve been successful that way with a few stallions. I had Exceed And Excel first time up. I had him twice when you could go to him. You couldn’t go to him now!”

He had one yearling for sale at Goffs during the week, with two foals for November. He likes what he is presenting but is pragmatic about how he might fare.

“You have to take it on the chin whatever way it comes. I have a Gutaifan filly foal. She’s very, very nice, I like her a lot. She’s a big, strong filly. I have a very pretty filly, a Buratino – she’d be an Exceed And Excel horse as well and the cross works well for me.

“You need a bit of luck. I bred 16 horses and every one of them bar one have run and they all won, from Group 1 down to a Grade 4 handicap. They’re getting to the track and they’re winning.

“Buyers wouldn’t be aware of that at all. It’s very hard at the moment because you’ve all these speed stallions now that everyone is going for. It’s making the game harder. There’s probably a lot of overbreeding done as well.”

RESPONSIBILITY?

Is there fault in this phenomenon? Should stallion men and breeders be more responsible? Isn’t everyone entitled to breed if they can?

“Of course everyone is entitled to breed but I’d say this autumn will put manners on a lot of people, including myself. It can’t be sustained.

I won’t be selling a mare but I’ll hold off for a year.

“I think Brexit will have an awful impact though God only knows. They don’t know themselves, that’s the problem. People are being cautious.”

He sees residual impact on racing and is passionate about making it easier for young people to break into racing.

“Up-and-coming young trainers are getting it very hard. It’s a knock-on effect everywhere. There’s a lot of good, young trainers out there and they’re all struggling and I don’t see a whole lot being done to help them. They need a leg up somewhere. This year will sort out a lot.”

As a rule, he doesn’t retain horses to run. Annie Power was an exception.

“She’d a pedigree to die for. I was buying and selling at the time and it was probably a good decision… I thought she might be a flat horse, an Oaks horse or something like that. She grew from two to three and three to four and that’s why I went down the bumper route.

“She had temperament in bucket loads. She was fantastic. Willie campaigned her very well as well. The year she won the Champion Hurdle, I think she was third choice but she fairly destroyed them, that’s all I know.

“I was in the parade ring for the Champion Hurdle win and was one of the first to congratulate Mr Ricci. It was just a great atmosphere.

“If she breeds something serious it would be what I thought in the first place and I’d get great craic out of that.”

REMARKABLE RECORD

As he touched on, his percentage of progeny making it to the track is quite remarkable, not to mention their ability to record victory.

“Championship was by Exceed And Excel. I sold him as a foal and got €90,000 for him. He was a smashing horse, a beauty. He’s after winning two Group 2s and a Group 3. Havana Beat has won a listed race.

“I have one mare called Sweet Home Alabama (dam of Havana Beat) and she’d five horses that ran in the space of two weeks, which was unbelievable. Two of them won and the others were placed. I know they were hurdling and chasing but they’re running and winning at some level.”

He is still basking in the afterglow of Ballyanne Sim’s stunning all-the-way win at Shelbourne Park two weeks ago.

“I buy and sell dogs and have sold some good dogs but all my life I was always looking for a champion. They don’t come around really as I don’t pay the big money they’d be asking. I bred in what they call the good days but it’s hard to shift them. The market is not there.

“We were trialling a few dogs in Shelbourne Park one Wednesday morning. Eugene Robinson, who’s a friend of mine and is the father of James, who’s the trainer, rang me – I wasn’t there that morning. He phoned me and said ‘I’m after seeing a pup going around there’ – and I love early pace, you know? – and he said ‘He showed a right bit of early going round.’

“He didn’t do a fantastic time or anything but he said he might be one to take a chance on. So I said to bring him home. I bought him there and then and the rest, as they say, is history.”

Beaten in a sprint first time out, Ballyanne Sim won five in a row subsequently. As a young dog, only whelped in June 2016, Cleary was adamant that he would not take his place in the Derby. Instead, he had next year’s English Derby in mind, it being an annual jaunt for him and good friend Seamus Begley.

Just before the draw for the first round heats took place, Ballyanne Sim ran 28.43 at Shelbourne. Robinson Snr implored him to enter the dog. He wasn’t off the phone when another mate, Ian Reilly called.

“You’ve a Derby dog there son,” Reilly stated simply.

Cleary relented, but concerned that the exertions might take too much out of the neophyte, insisted that it be a learning experience. That was until it became obvious that perhaps it hadn’t come too soon after all.

“He’s a very young dog and for him to do what he did was an outstanding training performance by James. He coaxed him along the whole way. We took the gloves off then at the quarter-final stage. Everyone else was winding down and we were only winding up.

“In the final, for a dog they were all saying wouldn’t stay, he did the fastest Derby time of all time and he was still first to the pick-up. He wasn’t stopping. I couldn’t say enough about the Robinsons and the way they handled the dog.”

It was vindication for Cleary, who had been expressing his confidence that his charge would be victorious beforehand, despite the apparent no-hoper status.

“After the semi-final, I couldn’t sleep for two nights. It wasn’t out of excitement, just that I had looked at the videos of the races of all the other dogs and they were going through my head. I was looking at it and thought ‘They’re not going to beat this fella if he runs his race.’

“When the dogs were going in the traps, my son Liam was beside me and I just put me hand on his shoulder and seed ‘Jeez if this dog gets beaten I’m going to be on some downer because I can’t see him getting bet.’”

With a treasured spot in the red jacket of trap one, Ballyanne Sim rocketed to the bend and never saw another rival. He will be kept ticking over until next month’s Night of Stars and will then be let off, before a campaign that will most likely include the classics of greyhound racing, the Easter Cup, the Laurels and then, that tilt at the English Derby.

OPTIMISTIC

Despite his current success, Cleary is not blinded to the travails of the greyhound industry, however, though he is more optimistic that measures will be taken to address them than he is in the thoroughbred sector.

“It’s a mirror of the horse end of it. People are working hard at it though. There’s a lot of tough decisions need to be made, and I wouldn’t like to say what they are, but I think the group that is there now will make them. I believe that.

“It’s going to be very hard on the older generation, and we’re the older generation, the fella with a few dogs and pups at the back of the house, but you have to encourage the young people. I love nothing better than seeing a young trainer coming out and doing something. At the moment they’re trying to get through and they’re getting knocked every way.

“It’s the same as the horse end of it. They could be doing a lot more as well… Racing needs to smarten up a bit.

“I remember Aidan O’Brien growing up. He’s from a lovely family not too far away from me at home in Wexford. I followed Aidan when he was riding – anything Wexford for me at that time I was interested in – and he was brilliant. He started off with Jim and to see what that man has achieved is unbelievable all through his career.

“The same with Gordon Elliott. He was a point-to-point rider I saw a lot around Kildare. I followed him as a young fella coming through and look what he’s achieving now.

“But it’s so hard for young people like that to come through. I’d love to see Godolphin putting up a huge training establishment here in Ireland. I think it would help the industry an awful lot. The way the game is gone here, Ireland is nearly a schooling track for all the big lads for the big days in England. It should be more competitive… I don’t know how it can be done but in Ireland, if you’re in, you’re in and that’s the way it is.”

Meanwhile, he will keep “plugging away,” regardless of what occurs in the coming months. He has lived the dream and is continuing to do so.

“God yeah” he confirms. “I love it.”