Paul Hennessy

It is a pity that they have had so much rain in Cheltenham that they had to call off today’s racing but I have to say, I am not complaining about how soft the ground is getting generally because Heaven Help Us loves that.

Danny Mullins has picked out a Listed mares’ novice hurdle for her in Newbury on the 30th, which is Ladbrokes Trophy day, so that is the plan for us now. She’s grand at the moment. We brought her over to Newbury last week and she was third in a good mares’ novice. That experience should stand to her.

The travelling doesn’t bother her at all. She has a great temperament, bomb proof. And the fact we are all with her, because she was born and reared at home, she just doesn’t know any different than us.

The whole thing is really a dream. Who would have thought you’d breed one mare and it would work out like that, that you’d win a bumper and win a maiden hurdle at Cheltenham and she owned by John Turner, who’s a friend of mine that I train greyhounds for and who owned my first English Derby winner, Jaytee Jet.

John is allowing me to work away with her. He has horses with Nicky Henderson and Willie Mullins — that’s the professional side of the outfit!

John lives near Cheltenham, and he was delighted that we’d run there at the October meeting. We went with the hope of finishing fourth or fifth but for her to win was incredible.

The reaction has been unreal. A lot of people identify with it, small operators like ourselves. It gives people great hope that it can happen. The dream lives on for a lot of people.

We went over the day before. She was walking down along the chute and onto the track to exercise in the centre. I was taking a video on the phone and after she went down the chute in under the stand, I would actually have turned her around, put her into the lorry and brought her back home. To think that I’d have had a horse even walking on the track in Cheltenham was enough!

Any National Hunt fan, whether you have a horse or not, that’s the dream. Everything is Cheltenham. We were blessed to get to live the dream and we’ve been living the dream ever since with her.

She’s a beautiful mare, very honest and that makes it easier for me. She’s a novice and I’m a novice.

More than likely I’d like to breed from her in time. Her half-sister, Thywillbedone won with Danny in Fairyhouse and she has a colt foal by Policy Maker. She’s in foal now to Yeats, and that would be closely related to Heaven Help Us, who Yeats sired with their dam Spare The Air.

My father was a farmer. His place and Paddy Mullins’ are about 200 yards apart. I grew up with all the lads and spent more time in their house than at home. As my mother said, ‘You should thank Maureen’, because she brought me to all the gymkhanas and whatever pony shows were going on. That’s where the grá for it came.

I’ve kept a mare on and off over the years and we were lucky enough to win one or two races but this lassie just took it to a whole new level.

Niall Prendergast is a very important part of the operation. He rides them for me. He rode a point-to-point winner for his dad last week which was fantastic. He’s a great chap and has made a huge difference. So we put in a gallop and actually converted one of our dog walkers into a horse walker.

We have another horse that we’re getting ready for a point-to-point and we bought four three-year-olds that Niall broke and has jumping. Hopefully we’ll go down the point-to-point or bumper route with them. We always had the interest and when Niall came along we agreed to expand it together for both of us. It’s working well so far and he got a winner on Heaven Help Us in the bumper in Navan. That was great.

Danny steps in when we’re doing a bit of work and helps with picking races. And he’s ridden so many good horses, his input is invaluable. He only lives over the road and whenever I want him he’s there immediately.

How far can she go? It’s the same with the greyhounds. You start them off and you take the steps and you reach a level. Only a very few reach the top. But she’s given us a Cheltenham winner and that was a good race, all the right people were in it and the race in Newbury was good too. If she finished third in the Listed race that would be great too, to get a bit of black type.

It’s hugely exciting, for us to have that opportunity. It’s been a great year and we won the English Greyhound Derby for a second time with Princess Blake. We’ve had tremendous luck with the greyhounds over the years, had some brilliant ones and still have thank God, but to get an opportunity to run in Cheltenham, a place I’d only watched on television is huge.

And the amount of people that are genuinely happy for us is great. It’s a real story of David and Goliath, a guy with one horse that he bred and reared, to win a race at Cheltenham. It gives great hope to people that might want to give it a go. It has happened before. Look at Tom Foley and what he did with Danoli. It can happen. The cat can look at the Queen.