Tom Foley

People always want to talk about Danoli and you could never get tired of talking about him.

He always did well at Leopardstown and had some great days there at this time of year. He was always going to give you a thrill no matter when you went out. Everybody loved him and you’d have young people now that would only have been told about him still ask about him. There’s big champions after coming and going and they’ll never be remembered like he is.

It was a pity he got hurt but weren’t we lucky to have him? People don’t realise it but another 25 yards in Liverpool when he suffered a broken bone in his fetlock, probably jumping the second last on his way to winning his second Martell Hurdle at Aintree in 1995, and the horse would’ve been put down because the leg would’ve gone completely. When I saw the x-ray I couldn’t believe it. I shut my eyes. He was meant to stay for a bit longer.

The surgeon, Chris Riggs operated on him said that he’d only done it to save his life and later on, he flew over to see him because he couldn’t believe all he had won after. He took over the horse at the hospital. No-one was allowed to go near him. He took him out and grazed him and everything. There was a wall where he was and it was covered completely with Get Well cards. Everyone took to him, even in England.

I will never forget his first race back in the Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown the following January. I couldn’t stand up, my legs were like jelly. Tommy Treacy was told that if he took out the stick to bate him, not to come back in. If we’d have run him the way we normally do, he’d have won but we were looking after him and he ran an unbelievable race to be third, beaten less than a length.

He hadn’t even jumped a hurdle since Aintree so we said we’d bring him down and show him one when going up to the parade ring. He walked within 50 yards of it and he threw his head up in the sky and took off and on to the parade ring. He jumped like a stag that day.

He was never the same though and had a couple more long lay-offs but he still won a lot of races. He won the Denny Chase over Christmas and beat four Gold Cup horses the year he won the Hennessy. He won that on three legs. If he’d never have got hurt I’d bet my life against anybody that he’d have won a Gold Cup at Cheltenham.

We had some other good horses. Moonman had serious ability but broke his leg in Navan. Royal Paradise was a very good horse. He won the Future Champion Novice Hurdle over Christmas but he was ran one day when he shouldn’t have been. I begged them not to but the vets said he was perfect. I said ‘He’s not.’ They ran the horse and he bled and we never could get him right after.

It all seems a long time ago now but people remember. When All About Alfie won in Naas last week, people had a lot of nice things to say and it was the same when Therellalwaysbeone won in Limerick at the end of November. The support is great and it means an awful lot. They give you the encouragement.

I couldn’t believe the price Alfie was. I said going up he’d be 4/1 or 5/1. I couldn’t believe it when he was 10/1, 12/1. He was coming off a very, very good run. He was working well and he loves to be ridden like he was in Naas, hitting the front as late as possible. Even as it was, Patrick Corbett had to push him on a little earlier because Rachael Blackmore came up on his outside and he was in danger of being boxed in. But he idles and has a good look around when he’s in front.

That was his sixth win, with one of those on the all-weather and two on the flat proper. He’s 10 now but there’s another one in him. He’s one of those that when he goes up in the handicap, you just have to bide your time and I think the handicapper understands that. He knows if you go to town on them, they’re finished and you’re putting another small fella out of business. So Alfie’s handicap mark is right and it gives him a chance to win again.

Racing has changed a lot since the Danoli times and not for the better. When you see a bumper horse running that cost €400,000 — I wouldn’t spend that in my life. I bought a good few horses and I guarantee if they were all added in together it wouldn’t have cost that.

People are sick of it and no-one is doing anything about it. I don’t know how far it can go or how long it can last for. You’ll have the likes of the few big boys that will always be there but the ordinary fella won’t bother because he’ll say ‘What’s the point?’ It’s pushing the small man out that loved racing and was the backbone of racing.

I’d agree with Matthew Smith that an auction series for bumpers would help things. So would running more 80-95 or 0-102 races, to give the ordinary fella a little bit of a chance to win a race.

I actually wouldn’t mind having a few horses to go to the all-weather in Dundalk because everyone has a chance there. The only thing is you hate when nine o’clock comes and you’re leaving it. It’s a long way home and morning don’t be long coming when you have to start all over again. If you’d a nice horse you wouldn’t mind doing it.

I always thought they’d have the all-weather in Naas or Punchestown or Thurles, because having to go to Dublin was one of the things people were trying to get away from. 95 per cent of the people are travelling up to Dundalk. If you had one anywhere from Naas back down, 95 per cent of the horses are down there. It would be great if they were to look at a second one.

It would be money better spent than on the Curragh. That’s all for show. As I said to lads, you’d have more standing outside mass on a Saturday evening or Sunday morning than what’d be in the Curragh the biggest end of the time. You have the likes of the Derby, the Oaks, Champions Weekend but after that you’d go up and you’d think there was no-one there. To spend the type of money they’re spending on it was pure madness. They could have spent it an awful lot better ways than that for the good of racing.

We’ll have a few runners at Limerick over Christmas. Golanbrook is 12 now. He has won seven races but he always had a mind of his own. He was out for more than three years with a leg too but he didn’t always give all he had because he had bags of ability. He showed that when he won the bumper at the Punchestown Festival, won hurdles and chases but if he put his mind to it, he could have been a real good horse but we hope there’s still one in him. I was going to go run him over hurdles but the chase on Wednesday might suit better and 2m 3f on that ground might be far enough.

Therellalwaysbeone will probably run in the handicap hurdle on Thursday. We decided earlier in the year we were going to go over fences with him but he won his hurdle well and is handicapped okay. He’s a big horse, immature, so we decided to give him a bit of a break, give him time to fill up and it might stand to him to go chasing next year. He should come on for his win in Limerick because that was his first run in 232 days, and he’ll have gained experience too.

We hope to run Onawingandaprayer in a bumper, either Friday or Saturday, whichever one he gets in. He’s six and it’s his first run. We had him in early but the ground meant we couldn’t run. He wants a cut. We’re happy with him and I think he’ll make a real nice hurdle horse.

Goaheadmakemyday will run then at Fairyhouse on New Year’s Day and she’s always capable of putting in a good run. She ran a blinder in Gowran first time back when third after 204 days.

I’m 72 now but we’re picking the thing up now again. We only kept it going because the whole family was involved. They make things handy for me and if I send them down, they’re well able to do it and I know it’ll be done right.

But we had kind of lost interest. You went to meetings and even in the stable yard, you knew very few people and the enjoyment wasn’t there. But we couldn’t get away from it and we said we’d come back and have another go anyhow.

So we’ve three winners so far this season and with the winter ground only coming, hopefully we’ll add to that and end with a better year than the last four. It would be nice to get another one over Christmas. We’ll keep trying anyway.