Patrick Magee I'm from Shercock in Co Cavan and am based on the family farm there. We've 150 acres and my father has beef cattle there. He built the yard for me there and is a great backer of mine. I've great support from the local community as well and there are plenty of people looking to get involved in owning horses. I got the licence a couple of years ago and things have gone quite well. We've had a few winners, Flat and jumps, and we've plenty of space and facilities at home so we can get them ready there. In fairness I think the way my two-year-olds have performed first time out this season shows that they're not lacking in anything when they hit the track. Nika Pika was fifth first time out in a good maiden at Naas and was placed in a Curragh nursery last month. I've a nice colt by Unfortunately called Goldrush Kid who was fifth in a Curragh maiden first time out and the second, third and fourth have all won since. He pulled a muscle during that race and we've had to go easy with him but if we can get him back before the end of the year he'll not be far away. I bought four or five two-year-olds last October/November and I said if I got one winner out of them that would be an achievement because between the whole lot of them together they cost about fifteen grand. Si Senior cost less than five grand and I was delighted when she won at Sligo this week. She had run very well first time out at the Curragh and Seamie Heffernan said she was a winner waiting to happen. She scoped wrong after her second start at Navan but she had been working very well and I was hopeful of a good run at Sligo. She is a smart filly who's still very weak and immature and she'll be a nicer filly next year when she strengthens up. She handled the soft ground at Sligo but definitely wants better ground. It's been a lucky place for me. I rode a point-to-point winner there and had my second winner as a trainer there when She's All Vintage won a maiden hurdle in October 2020. Cornakill Rose had won at Bellewstown earlier that year to get me off the mark. I started off with Oliver Brady and have worked in plenty of yards including Noel Meade's and Tony Martin's and I spent a couple of summers in New York as well to see how things were done there. I rode in plenty of point-to-points and had a few winners. They used to call me 'one winner a year' but I got loads of experience and I loved it. You meet a lot of people, you're in a lot of yards and you see a lot of stuff. I rode a couple of bumper winners as well. If I had packed in the riding and gone training earlier I would have been too young for it so it worked out well. I found, though, that you don't learn things properly until you start training yourself and make a few mistakes and then make sure not to repeat them. I used to do plenty of breaking and pre-training and had runners in point-to-points. I've sold some good horses and put some real good horses through our hands including Darver Star and Captain Cj. My training career was probably slow enough to get going but we're starting to build a bit of momentum now. I've a fairly small string but I'd prefer to have it that way and concentrate on horses that can be competitive. I've gone down the Flat route a bit more because it's easier to get owners to buy into horses that they know won't take as long to reach the track compared to the jumpers. I'm quite forgiving when I'm looking to buy horses at the sales. I just look at the individual, some of them can be a bit light on the day or have knocks and bangs, swollen knees and superficial stuff like that,. A scar on a knee is not going to stop a horse. Si Senior, for example, was just a bit buzzy on the day and wouldn't let herself down to walk, she was jig-jogging left and right. You couldn't actually see her walk so you were kind of taking a chance, but when I got her home and seen her galloping the next morning I said, here we go, this is a nice filly, you could see that she could move. That's the chance you take but she has a good pedigree as well. If you're trying to buy a National Hunt horse for that kind of money, you can't get a pedigree, you're buying a blank page. Fergal Harford rode in point-to-points with me and we're good friends. He used to work as a butcher but is concentrating more on the horses nowadays and he does a good bit of breaking and pre-training before sending the horses on to me. We work well together Arch Enemy has won three times for us since last summer and has been a star. We were gutted when she was caught close home at the Galway festival but it was still a great run and I was very proud of her. She has a nice mark over hurdles but I don't want to break her stride on the Flat yet because she's been running so well. I bought a yearling out of a field the other day and I'll be on the hunt for more in the next couple of months so it's onwards and upwards.
