How did you get involved in racing?

I was born and reared in Kilbeggan, and I’ve been going racing since I was around four years of age. I always loved the horses, and love to have an oul bet. My uncle was the secretary of the race committee at Kilbeggan for years, and we were always down there doing bits of work like painting fences before racedays.

Back in the 1990s, I got involved with a great friend of mine, Joe Reilly from Killucan, and we had our first horse together called Beep Beep. I think he won four races for us, trained by Frederick John Bowles. He won at Dundalk in the old racecourse over hurdles.

We bred from her and the foal’s name was Ring Ned. Tom Foley trained that to win two or three races. From there, I bought a three-year-old at Goffs with Tom. She was by Flemensfirth out of Blue Dante. Her name is Dantes Firth, and she’s the mother of Moudan. She only won one race but she was second about six times. When I retired myself, I decided to breed out of her. We have Soldante, by Soldier Of Fortune, in training with Ciaran [Murphy] as well. He won one race for us at Tramore but then he got injured, so we had him at home for about a year and he went back to Ciaran recently.

We brought him to Cheltenham in December two years ago and he ran very well to finish third. We have another one out of Dantes Firth by Court Cave called Dontcavein, and he’ll be running at Clonmel on January 8th hopefully. We have a lovely filly by Poet’s Word who I’d love to breed from if I last long enough! She’s with Ross O’Sullivan.

I’m involved with the Sarsfield Syndicate from Newbridge as well. Mick Heatherman is the head of it and he’s a good friend of mine. We had a good horse with Ross that won at the Galway and Listowel festivals, Champella. We had a very good bumper horse with Willie Mullins years ago as well, Lilywhitedancer, who finished fifth in the Champion Bumper at Cheltenham in 2008. He went on to win a hurdle race and a couple of chases.

My partner Sarah Glynn helps me with all of the breeding and rearing on the foals and, all in all, we’ve been very lucky. I just love racing.

How did Moudan’s race at Limerick pan out?

I watched the King George that day and there was a real exciting finish, and the finish in Moudan’s race was every bit as exciting.

My heart was in my mouth! Eoin [Walsh, jockey] nearly came off him over the first fence, he hadn’t really settled at that stage, but he jumped perfect after that, and I think he’ll be a much better chaser. He won over hurdles at Limerick in January last year and then he won at Clonmel that February.

Ciaran was delighted with him, he’s had 20 winners in 2025 and our fella provided three of them. Ciaran is a lovely fella, very genuine. Dot [Love] is still involved as well and she’s a hardy oul divil. I was in the yard before Christmas and they thought that he was their best chance of a winner. I was happy out anyway.

There was a great buzz. Sarah and I went back to Kilbeggan to celebrate afterwards in the pub and there was a great crowd there. We got a clap and a cheer when we walked in. I think nearly the whole town of Kilbeggan had backed him! I have a first cousin in England who also had a winner on the day at Kempton with his horse Surrey Lord.

Have you got a plan for him going forward?

I leave it all up to Ciaran. He said he’ll give him a fortnight or three weeks off and then we’ll find a race for him. I found out on Wednesday that we only got a 2lb penalty for winning the race, which is great.

We were expecting four or six. It was a close finish but none of them were going to pass him, he was ready for a battle. I reckon an extra furlong or two wouldn’t be any harm either, but he has to have soft ground. Dontcavein is our next runner, so hopefully he’ll be as lucky as the others!

What was your highlight of 2025?

That was it the other day! It’s great to have a winner on any day but it was great on St Stephen’s Day, it’s a special time of year.