How did you get into ownership?

I have always loved jump racing and always dreamed of having my own racehorse. Ask anybody who knows me. I honestly never thought it would happen, even in recent times when my (small to medium) dry lining business has afforded me a decent enough living. However, I did think ownership was only for the rich.

Around the time of Cheltenham 2021, a group of eight close friends including myself decided to embark on a syndicate following the amazing success of Irish horses at Cheltenham and also because we knew the owners of Jeff Kidder who had the fantastic win at the meeting (Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle).

We are all Irish, first and second generation and live around the Harrow/Wembley part of north-west London where there has always been a strong Irish community. I began my research the next morning after the Gold Cup and by mid-afternoon I had emailed nearly 20 Irish trainers regarding setting up a syndicate and buying a horse.

In my naivety, that initial inquiry was looking for an unnamed, unraced horse from the points’ circuit. I received a couple of email replies that same day, the response was great and I think nearly all the 20 replied either via email or a phone call.

The main response was that all of them offered me a few different ways of getting set up with a horse and to hit the ground running a bit quicker than I would if I was indeed looking for an unnamed and unraced horse, which I now realise is called a ‘store horse’. Store horses are no good for a syndicate who ideally want a horse in a short space of time and ready to roll.

So over the next two weeks my knowledge of ownership went up 10-fold thanks to the many trainers I spoke too and great help and advice from HRI.

It also became apparent that the required budget was perhaps not what some syndicate members envisaged and alas the syndicate broke down which is fair enough and understandable.

So that was the end of that I thought. By now I had revised my requirements with the help of the advice from trainers and decided that a point-to-point horse with some race experience was what I would be looking for if I was doing this on my own. But I didn’t expect that I could do all this (financially) on my own. I wasn’t giving up though.

Helped by advice from my accountant and the approval of my wife Cathy, I decided to go ahead and get into ownership via the company ownership route, something I hadn’t even considered at the time.

Sadly around this time, our close Irish community lost two dear members that we all knew well for a long time through Covid and it really hit home that at nearly 58 years of age it was time to make the most of what you have and have no regrets later in life about fulfilling your dreams. Well, this was my dream.

Any phone or email contact with Ross O’Sullivan was becoming more regular and with his close network of friends and family to call on to get me my horse it became obvious that he was the trainer for me. He knew that I wanted to be involved in all aspects, he knew that I wanted to call in frequently, he knew that I would want to maintain regular phone calls.

He put me in touch with industry professionals for me to get an insight into the sales process and what I could get for my money. He had top amateurs who were involved in the bloodstock and sales parts of the industry and riding regularly on the points’ circuit.

In the meantime I was closely glued to the weekend resumptions of pointing via P2P.ie and looking out for suitable horses in the weekend races. Based on my budget (at the time) I was told to look out for the good third- or fourth-placed horses in races, or those that may have pulled up close to home or unlucky fallers.

Lots of sales were starting up again at the time and so off I went to Tattersalls Newmarket April Sale armed with a list of potential purchases, further narrowed down by Ross who had made his own choices for us to both look at. I found the sales experience totally fascinating. It was so interesting meeting the main players in the point-to-point scene and watching Ross checking out the horse we were interested in and others that we had no prior knowledge of.

All the big trainers from Ireland and the UK were there as well as the bloodstock agents, but it was also interesting to meet the small breeders or handlers who had bred a horse themselves from their own broodmare, now looking to get a good sales price for all their hard work over the previous three or four years. Some of these people may have a small piece of land and a full-time job, often nothing to do with racing but have the passion and love of horses to breed, break in and race on the points’ circuit. All new to me!

Anyway a fascinating day but alas all outside of my budget. Back to the drawing board. Ross’s network had by now also came up with some other names for us to look at and either await the next sale or make an offer privately.

Ross and I were in conversation on the phone a few days later discussing that weekend’s series of five-year-old maiden races and drawing up a list of the next batch of horses to consider, when the call was interrupted by an incoming call from Jamie Codd telling Ross that he believed he “had found a nice horse for Richard”. That horse was Paddys Planet!

What was your best day at the races?

After just three races to date with a fifth place and two wins, the win at Naas last Sunday has to take top spot. I truly can’t believe how good it has all been to date. When Paddys Planet won at Limerick it was a mid-week Tuesday meeting and I had travelled over from London on my own, so no time for celebration that evening as I headed back to get my flight from Dublin.

But Naas was incredible. My wife Cathy and two of my three children (Patrick and Rosie) were with me plus my wife’s family and close friends were all up from Cork. My wife is Cathy Murphy née Ryan from Newcestown near Bandon in Cork. Her brother is Tim Ryan.

Paddys (as we call him) was also supposed to run a month earlier but caught a cold and so we put things off until Naas after Christmas.

Naas was a very welcoming course and we also stayed locally in Lawlor’s Hotel so all was set for a great weekend.

Flat or jump racing, which do you prefer?

I like both codes of racing and follow it on a daily basis, but I tend to only really follow the major flat meetings and major group races. I do like to take clients to Ascot’s Champions Day meeting in October but I think that may fizzle out as jump racing has always been my favourite and now with my added interest of ownership I think future visits will always be to a jumps meeting. The spectacle of jump racing, the fact that lots can happen, the longer race time, how often a race can change, the physicality of both the horse and jockey appeal to me like no other sport.

What do you look for in a trainer?

I have only limited experience here with the one horse and one trainer but I did take my time when finding my trainer back in the early days of my quest.

I am a small owner and racing means so much to me that it’s a lot more than just turning up at the races. I made it clear that even out of season I will want to visit my horse at least every month and spend time with the trainer and experience all aspects of training and the life in a training yard. So the ability to get access almost when I want is vital to me.

Any business owner relies on good communication and the ability to pick up the phone when I want and speak to my trainer is key. I needed a trainer who is basically a nice person and who outwardly shows how important horse welfare is and has a great team.

With Ross it was the fact that he was well aware of my limited knowledge of ownership and sensed that I wanted to be part of process and have lots of input into the buying of my horse.

Ross is so good. My wife is always saying to me “leave the poor man alone” when phone call after phone call I am on to him asking questions. I don’t think he minds too much? Ross is having a wonderful season after having his best season on the flat and summer jump racing, he has already now beaten his previous winter jumps tally.

What would you like to see racecourses in Ireland do for owners?

With the pandemic around at the moment and probably not likely to be gone too soon, it’s understandable that courses need to manage numbers. But being one of many overseas owners who may always want to see their horse face-to-face and attend there races when running, I think some courses need to understand that the overseas owners in particular do wish to bring their family and friends to the meetings. There needs to be a bit of leeway with the amount of owners’ badges given out as there is nothing worse than attending from overseas as the guest of an owner and not being able to join the owner in the paddock or owners and trainers bars/restaurants.

On our first visit to the races as an owner this wasn’t an issue, but on the second occasion the owners and trainers bar was closed and only available to the stewards (nobody told the owners or trainers in advance) and recently I had to persuade paddock staff to let more than two people per owner into the paddock; with four AIR passes and a few more guest badges for my family who had travelled over from London I think this was unfair when there was plenty of space in the paddock. Just a bit annoying if you have travelled overseas and quite rightly your guests want to experience all aspects of the day.

What significance do your colours hold?

My colours are my company colours. It was truly great fun coming up with the design of the colours on the HRI web site and I honestly had over 100 contenders, narrowed down by the family all set out on the kitchen table one Saturday evening.

What horses do you currently have in training?

Just the one – Paddys Planet.

What’s next on the agenda for your horse?

The thrill of my first horse being placed and winning so far on two occasions is awesome and both Ross and I know well that his future is over fences and, corny as it sounds, anything over hurdles is a bonus as he is a nice chaser with a bright future over fences. So very likely that it’s just the one season over hurdles.

Paddys Planet was bred by the Byrne family and it was great to meet Naimh Byrne who works at Naas at the weekend when he won on Sunday. Paddys was bought as a three-year-old by Colin Motherway who had him for two years on the points’ circuit and we bought him off Colin.

In September I visited Colin in Shannacoole on the Cork/Waterford to see where my horse spent his earlier years and Colin also then suggested that I call into see his parents at the famous Yellowford Farm just up the road near Killeagh. Seeing all these beautiful young foals in paddocks was something I hadn’t even thought about and completely new to me. A wonderful time I had with Colin, then with his parents Frank and Liz and brother Paul.

So I left there with a further dream and new ambition to one day buy a horse from the very start of the supply chain; a yearling from Yellowford, over to Colin to break and train on the points’ circuit, then up to Ross in Kildare to train on the tracks.

Sounds idyllic, haven’t told my wife this one yet!

What do you do with your racehorses when their racing days are over?

This is one of the (many) things that one does not even consider when entering into ownership, so I will have to take advice on that in the future. My wife’s family are dairy farmers in Cork so I will work on my brother-in-law Tim over the next few years to increase his interest in racing and potentially look after Paddys!

What advice would you give to someone thinking of becoming a racehorse owner?

Research, research, research and take your time. Don’t underestimate the time needed to get to the ownership stage and then also the time needed to maintain that interest. It’s a massive thing to take on and in my opinion warrants a lot of time and effort.

It does become and needs to become a part of your life. I love it. My sister-in-law recently asked me if this is all consuming. It certainly is. It’s now part of my life - my wife, my children, my family, my work and now Paddys.

My new venture is all consuming but makes me strive to work even harder in my business knowing that if that thrives then my enjoyment of my horse is all worth it. I am certainly not a rich man but I work damned hard and need a serious pastime and hobby but that hobby is also now part of my life as I love my horse.

Richard Murphy was in conversation with Olivia Hamilton