John O'Donoghue I'm from Mallow, Co Cork and I suppose my first involvement in horses was through hunting and ponies and that sort of scene. My father was friendly with, and in school with, TJ Nagle. As a teenager, I started out at TJ's on weekends and school holidays. I was sort of involved in jumping, but it was always the Flat that kind of caught my attention. If I was planning anything for the future, it was always on the Flat side of the industry. While I was in UCC, I was spotting at Goffs. The Powell family are also originally from Mallow, and Leo, Brendan and everybody were friendly with my father. Leo suggested I look at spotting in Goffs, so he was a help at the time. To do spotting at the sales, Flat and National Hunt, during my degree in Law was great. In the summers, I would head off. It was always tricky to find work, I felt, because I wasn't a jockey. I wasn't light enough, basically. I was leaning towards jumping in and out of yards in England. I got on very well with Jamie Osborne and he had Toast Of New York in training that year, so it was an eye-opener for me. I was involved in the training of him, and I ran the yard when the others packed up and went to the States. The following summer I went to Mr Oxx's and did a stint again during the degree. Using the Curragh was what I really took away from my time there. It was such a yard, and I loved the almost organic way of training. It is a big open space. You go out and the horses enjoy it and prick their ears. There's a peacefulness and a serenity around the Curragh on those nice mornings. Routine as well, Mr Oxx was great for routine. I went in as a trainee and did my FE-1 exams to qualify as a solicitor but, in the time that I was doing them and working in a legal practice, I made the move to go over to David O'Meara who is also from Cork - he's from Fermoy. We had a chat and he had moved from Helmsley down to his new yard just outside York (2016), so he was quickly in need of staff. I took up a Head Lad position with him, and it was all about taking the plunge because I always wanted to do it when the right opportunity came up. I'd be a pretty deep thinker in how I'm going to make things work. I was planning for when that job came up. I had a great two years there and really loved York - great place and great racing. David's routine is so simple, but my God we had some horses - the likes of Amazing Maria and Mondialiste. All these talented Group One horses trained very simply and straightforwardly. It was really eye-opening how simple you could make it in just keeping things consistent. I had always wanted to make a career of it be it as a trainer or perhaps as a breeder or a consignor or something in the industry. I suppose training was the real passion. I sort of knew that you needed a bit of backing to launch and you needed numbers. It is very tough in Ireland, of course, and I was very aware, even at that age, that clients and support would be key. David was brilliant, but he had a core group of owners that were very much established and very much within York. My wife Jodi and I launched a group called York Thoroughbred Racing which was a microshare, 2.5 per cent up to 10 per cent, in horses. We actually had five of them on the go at one stage and that gave us a few clients. We moved the Irish investors into Irish horses and we whittled down the English percentages when we were moving back. I knew if I really wanted to make a go of it, I would need a big yard and an assistant job, so I then moved to Roger Varian and became his assistant down in Newmarket. There were a huge number of horses, multiple yards, and lots and lots of staff. What I really took from Roger was the race planning and the strategy around getting one ready for those big races. The quality in Newmarket really got me. Campaigning a good horse lightly and thinking over a cup of coffee for hours and hours of what we going to do. It was through the years with Roger that we planned and got our people together to start. It was a little bit of rush in the end because it was Covid-19, so trying to travel back to look at a yard or organise a house was messy with quarantine and different things. It was difficult, but we managed to get it over the line, and we launched with what we could muster. It was brilliant to have Roger very much on our side. He basically gave me a push the last year - I gave him a year's notice saying it would be my last season. He said, 'get out and get racing as much as you can'. He gave us great access to his own clients. It was just the perfect launchpad and I got on great in Newmarket. I took an awful lot from Roger, to be fair. He was great to me. It is amazing to be training in Mr Oxx's yard now. If only you could go back and tell yourself as a teenager that you are going to train out of here in a few years' time! To rent the yard itself, was huge. The Curragh was the place for me. We put our own sort of tweaks to the routine, but definitely having Mr Oxx as a degree of inspiration when I was young was great. Jodi is the administration side and runs the business, let's say, and I concentrate on the horses and the day-to-day outside. She would have vast experience in racing as well. She was an Equine Nutritionist in the UK, and then she looked after Europe for Plusvital. She did the speed gene testings and then took up a role with the Jockey Club where she was involved in corporate structure. She had about five or six racetracks with Newmarket being the Hub. She was Partnerships Manager, so she was involved in sponsorship and meeting different participants in the industry. I'm sure if we had stayed in England, she would have done very well in the Jockey Club and in that line of career. My first winner was with Cailin Cliste in a sprint handicap at the Curragh in April 2022. As a kid from Cork when you are coming up on the motorway and you see the Curragh, you get excited. It has always been a special place for me. To get my first win at the Curragh was just perfect. She won again at Fairyhouse, and she is at home in Cork with my dad and is in foal to Persian Force. We have between 30 and 35 horses. At the start of the year, we had 45 horses and we picked our way through the ones we thought would materialise. We will work the yearling sales hard. We have got two or three already in to be broken at the minute. I feel that we are really hitting stride now. Everybody makes mistakes starting off and you kind of feel your way a little bit. I feel we are getting better and better every year, but obviously the results are somewhat the same. We are sort of in a stage now where we want to expand and really kick on and start to score a bit higher. We are very much open to new owners and horses. The core of our business, and a huge reason for starting in Currabeg, was to tailor for the owner/breeder. We have got great support now locally. We are keen to build on the strike rate. Earlier in the year, I felt we were a little bit sick, and I'd be happy with say a debut and then there would be a stinker of a run three weeks later. We were blood testing and scoping a lot, and we were finding little bits, nothing serious or disastrous, just pockets of ill health. I felt that the only horses that were healthy and capable of running were moderate. I feel that our strike rate could have been even better if we weren't relying on a lesser horse to run. I always feel when the two-year-olds get rolling that is when we train our best. We wouldn't have the horses overly ready for their debut. We always like to let it happen and then develop away but, if they show the ability to run well on debut, we will certainly put the finishing touches on them to run well and put themselves on the market. I think Mary Doll is just a perfect advertisement for the barrier trials. She went around Leopardstown a couple of weeks back and was fourth and learned an awful lot. We waited then for the rain and knew that she would handle a dig. To ensure she would run well, we said we would pop Rory Mulligan on and take another bit of weight off. We were going to Galway (last Tuesday) to place and put her on the market, but a couple of things came together and she won pretty snugly. Every year we say that we will try and win a stakes race. That's really annoying at the minute because we have been placing in them. This year It's A Heartbeat was second in the Nottingham Oaks (Listed, April) and L L Koulsty was third in the Platinum Stakes at Cork (Listed, August). What we really want is one good one to try and tackle a Group race and nail it in. Collectively, more horses and a better strike rate to keep everything turning. L L Koulsty is a homebred of Ronan Burns and he was also a winner at two and has progressed as a three-year-old. Looking back at the Listed race in Cork, we were so surprised that he got to dictate the race the way he did. We are going into the unknown a little bit with the set up in the Sovereign Path (Leopardstown) and we will see how that works out. We are drawn okay and we have the 5lb back with Rory Mulligan, so it is the perfect target I feel for the end of the year. He has done well - two wins, and a third in a Listed race. If he ran into the money or if he ran a big race and won it, he would be a valuable asset to head to the sales with. This is potentially his last run for us. I think he is going to be offered for sale in October in the Horses In Training Sale. He is owned in partnership with Ronan and Marcella Burns who are breeders and their business is selling horses. He is finding his groove now and he does have scope. He's a sort of a lengthy horse, not the most physically substantial - he's 440/450kg, so if he can mature and develop, I think he will make it up and over the 100 (rating) next year. I was good friends with Eddie Linehan back home, we were in school together all the way up. His younger brother, Denis, is Rory's agent. Denis was apprentice and assistant to Johnny Murtagh for a good while. It was through Denis that Rory first came on our radar. He has come in and ridden a bit of work for us in the past and I think his 5lb is a steal. I think he rides as good as a professional. I think he has got a good brain. We will certainly support him for the rest of the year and into next year. Even when the claim goes, I like the way he rides. I don't consider the Irish racing industry as work; it is a lifestyle. My initial interest in racing was as a fan. If I was sitting down to watch television, I would flick on racing, so to be able to turn that initial love of racing and the sport into a career is a privilege. I suppose if you are as passionate about racing, as I was as a kid, I would say get some exposure and experience as a start off. Things will fall into place for you. Toni was in conversation with Michael Graham. If you would like your racing story to be covered in this blog, please email vfinegan@bettercollective.com About Michael Graham Michael has worked in horse racing journalism for more than 15 years, having also written a weekly betting column on Gaelic football and hurling for a newspaper. He is involved in writing the My Racing Story features on this website. He spent a year in South Africa completing a Diploma in Business Administration and also studied Newspaper Journalism in Belfast. He enjoys playing 5-a-side football on a regular basis. 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