Andy Slattery

It has been another good year for us in terms of winners and prizemoney, and to have my son Andrew and nephew Ben Coen thriving as jockeys has been a big part of that.

Some people might look at our figures from 2016, when we had 18 winners and more than €470,000 in prizemoney but that was the type of season we were never going to be able to repeat. Creggs Pipes started that campaign very well handicapped and won four races on his own, including the Listed Cairn Rouge Stakes at Killarney, the Colm Quinn Mile at Galway and two Curragh handicaps.

Since then we’ve had 10 and 12 winners and are currently on 11, with more than €250,000 accumulated so you’d have to be happy.

And we are looking forward to next year as we have begun buying less of the sharp, precocious types in recent years. We’re buying a bigger type of horse now that will train on. If you’re selling on to a man, there’s no good in selling him a sharp two-year-old that’s gone in July. You want something that will train on so that he’ll come back and buy off you again.

We generally are a selling yard unless an owner wants to hold on to them. We move on a lot of two-year-olds.

We were always National Hunt producers, selling on Champion Hurdle winner Faugheen, RSA Chase winner Cooldine, Quel Esprit and Monksland through the point-to-points.

My brothers Willie and Brian got into the breeze-ups and have done well under the Meadowview Stables banner, with the likes of Prince Of Wales victor My Dream Boat among the successes.

Training on the Flat happened almost by accident. The lads were doing the breeze-ups and were stuck with five or six one year. They all won, and we sold them off well, so that started it all off.

We bought two in America and bought three this week in Fairyhouse (Tattersalls). We’ll buy about 15 to 20 yearlings. Six or seven of those will be for the track, the rest for the breeze-ups. I always buy one myself for the track, with a view to selling him as a two-year-old.

We are lucky to have an owner in the yard like Pat Garvey, who has no interest in selling but wants good horses to run in good races. He had Arch Swing with John Oxx, a Group winner that was second in the English 1000 Guineas.

He had the likes of Hill Society, Arch Rebel and Sunshine Street with Noel Meade. The first two were graded winners over jumps and Arch Rebel was a Listed winner on the flat too. Sunshine Street was fourth in the Epsom Derby before going to Neil Drysdale in America and winning a Grade 1. He is with us about four years and Planchart has been a Listed winner for us.

Mags O’Toole does the buying for him and in Rebel Tale we have a very nice horse who has excellent Group form, having been second to Armory and fourth to Mogul. We think so much of him we have entered him for the Guineas next year.

He’s growing the whole time. He’s been suffering growing pains all season. Ben (Coen) said he didn’t feel right in Leopardstown, the way he normally felt so we decided there and then to pull stumps for the year.

I do think he’ll be a better three-year-old. We gave him a break after Leopardstown, when he was third, in a winners’ race. Next thing he started to sprout and from there, he’s still at it. And to run as well as he did while doing that was impressive.

Sunchart is another nice horse of Pat’s, who was second first-time out to a 1/2 shot from Ballydoyle (Santiago) that had been second on two previous occasions. We will give him another couple of weeks. He’s a horse for next season, a big colt. That was a lovely run in Listowel and I think he’ll improve a lot for it, although we’d plenty done with him.

We have plenty to look forward to and to have my son Andrew and nephew Ben riding so many of the horses and doing so well in their own careers is brilliant. It’s going better than we ever thought it would for Andrew. I thought it would be next year before he would be a rider. He’s still fairly light — he’s only 7-3 in colours.

Andrew would never have started off only for Ben. He didn’t start riding horses until about four years ago. He’d no interest. It’s probably for the best, because he’s so light. He started going with Ben to the pony races and got the bug.

Looking at the weekend, I have a nice two-year-old of my own running in my wife Mary’s colours at Dundalk tonight — Sarwin. He’s probably a couple of weeks away from being ready but there are only a few more qualifiers left for the Forans Equine Auction Series final. He’s a gorgeous horse. He’s more of a three-year-old. We love him.

I have two in the Joe McGrath at the Curragh. I run Cityman, who won his third race of the year in Navan three weeks ago and Andrew will claim five pounds off him. I run a good filly called Emadee, who’s had a few injuries during the year. She is ready to start back now. She’s been a frustrating filly this year and last year but I think we have her right now. She’ll improve for the run but she’s on a nice mark and Rory Cleary rides. If everything goes right, we could have a good winter with her. She’s a high-class filly, definitely Listed class I think, when she’s right.

Like I said, we have a lot to look forward to.