How did you get involved with horse racing?

I knew a man called Andy Stewart, who had a horse called Big Buck’s, and he introduced me to Paul Nicholls. I have had a family relationship with Peter and Ross Doyle for near on 50 years, and they bought me flat horses with Richard Hannon. I also have a horse with Simon and Ed Crisford. Horse racing is recreational for me, and I try to get to the races as often as I can. I now live in Barbados but I originally lived in Ireland.

I left when I was 19 and worked for HSBC for nearly 40 years in 12 different countries, and I ended up being the group chief executive for them. I was in the Middle East in the ‘70s, Asia in the ‘90s, Latin America in the 2000s. I started off in Bahrain and went to Abu Dhabi, North Yemen, Qatar, then I went to Hong Kong and Singapore for seven years, Chile for three years, New York for three years, then London for two years, Brazil for seven years, London again for seven years, then back to Hong Kong for a year, and now I live in Barbados.

Where did the idea to run at Gowran Park come from?

It was a race that British runners haven’t really taken any notice of, and it was suitable for us. We were trying Bunyola Bay at a longer distance – he hadn’t done 10 furlongs before -– so there was a bit of doubt about whether he’d stay, but he blew them away.

We were very happy with that. What can I say, we’ll just have to find good races for him. I think you’ll find a lot of English trainers looking at that race anew. It went very smoothly, we got the horse over on Sunday evening and we got him back on Tuesday morning, so it’s not difficult to do.

I’m always puzzled why, both on the flat and over jumps, there isn’t more of an involvement from British horses in Ireland. Most of the horses we buy have come from Ireland anyway in the first place. I think it’s understanding which races to choose. Joseph O‘Brien had the first four places last year, so when you’re looking from the other side of the water, you think you don’t have a chance, but I think we’ve proved that we do have a chance. I think you’ll probably find that both the quality and quantity of runners in that race will change now. The sponsors have put a lot into it, so I hope that happens.

Winning the Gowran Classic gives you an automatic entry to the Irish Derby, was that in the back of your mind when making the entry?

Nope! You’ve got to be realistic. The Irish Derby field is a pretty substantial field of horses, who have proven themselves already. And bless little Bunyola Bay, he has shown himself to be good, but the Derby is a different thing. I’ll leave that up to Richard.

Where did his name come from?

It comes from Bunyola Bay, which is in the mountains of Majorca. The bay overlooks Richard Branson’s hotel, and we had a house there for a while. All of our horses are named by my wife. A number of them are named after Barbados. We’ve had Dynamite Dollars, who was a big jumping horse. Larchmont Lad was named after the town in New York that we lived in. Bathsheba Bay is a bay in Barbados and Captain Cuddles is a nickname for somebody!

Tell me about your National Hunt horses.

We’ve got Kandoo Kid, who won the Coral Gold Cup at Newbury. Unfortunately, he fell in the Grand National at Aintree. He was going very well and seemed to be distracted by a camera man lying on the ground at a jump, so he’s out of action at the moment. We’ve got Minella Yoga, a Fairyhouse academy hurdle winner who we bought at the Cheltenham Sale, we’ve got about eight performing at the moment. Larchmont Lass, by Walk In The Park, was a difficult horse to train, so she has just had a foal by Golden Horn. We’ll have to see how the foal does, but she’s a very happy mum. We had Inch House with the O’Neills, and he won at Newbury.

Do you prefer the flat or jumps?

I started off on the flat, and then went into National Hunt. My biggest problem is that I haven’t got time to see all of the horses run. I’m never in the UK in the winter, so as I gradually move forward, we’ll probably have more flat horses than jumpers. Jumpers are now very expensive, and the risks are higher than they are in flat racing, so I don’t know if the equation is right at the moment. You have to pay attention to the risk and return when you’re trying to justify the prices. The reality is that bills have to be paid. I must have spent well over a million pounds on jumpers in the Autumn of last year.

We have a charitable foundation as well, so I have to ask myself if it’s the right thing to do rather than give the money to our educational foundation. There has to be a balance, nobody does it to make a profit. That would be a bit silly. Bunyola Bay cost €80,000, and that’s a reasonable outlay. When you start paying €300,000 or €400,000 for a jumper, and some people go to more, you have to ask yourself if it makes sense – particularly with the injury rate of jumpers. The more you spend, the more likely you are to be successful, but that doesn’t count when it comes down to injuries. The best horse in the world can get injured. I have horses that have been out of action for a season or more and Kandoo Kid is a good example. Whether he’ll ever run again, I don’t know, but we’re trying everything to get him back.

It’s nice to hear that you’re doing what you can to get Kandoo Kid back, do you consider your horses’ retirement careers at all?

Not everybody thinks we can do it, but we’ll try our damnedest. We’re making progress slowly, but he is improving. The main thing is to fix him, whether he gets back to the track or not. It’s not a cheap sport, but you have to factor the horse’s welfare into the cost of it all. I’ve given away at least four horses and they go to good owners for hunting or show jumping.

To be fair, it’s very much down to the trainers who have the connections and can get them re-homed. Inch House had a nasty fall and we thought we could get him back, but after a year and a half of trying, it didn’t work. He’s up in Cheshire now with a family that have him for hunting.

A lot of tracks have a parade of ex-racehorses and I think it’s great to show that thoroughbreds aren’t just there for the race days. Some of them turn out to be great competition horses.