Galway hopes, loyalty and son Colin's success: Ger Keane speaks with Johnny Ward ahead of big week

Nearly six years ago, Gerry Keane was one of the lucky ones — able to work as normal during the pandemic — when one of the hazards of his profession almost left him in a wheelchair.

"I got a fall on the gallop and couldn't move," he recalls on the eve of another potential career highlight on day two of the Galway Festival.

"My spinal chord was about a fingernail away from being fractured and if it had fractured I'd have been in a wheelchair. The horse just ducked off, went for a gap he missed, threw me across his head and I landed on my spine. I didn't move my arms or my legs for six weeks."

He relays the horror in the matter-of-fact manner of a horseman who lives with the danger and thinks nothing of it. If you see the 70-year-old at the races, you may have noticed his lameness, but he is blessed — in more ways than he can walk.

"Perfect I suppose is the only word," he responds when asked about how the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes panned out Saturday for son Colin and Kalpana. "He got his position and had everything under control from a long way out."

When talking about the final leg of his three children - wife Esther also had Emma and Alison — Ger Keane is always loath to come across as boastful. He is not the only trainer to stamp his stock — think Aidan and Joseph or Patrick and Willie — but the very same warm grin that is never far from Ger Keane's face is a near-identical characteristic of his son.

It all began for Gerry when he took out a permit 30 years ago, his father Vincent having trained, and Colin got going on his dad's No Trimmings. The Medecis filly had managed one win from 16 starts and David Moran (since a star rider alongside his son Pietro in Canada) had rather gotten fed up of her.

“Colin was starting off,” Gerry recalls, “and David said he might get on with her. The first day Colin rode her, claiming ten, she won, and the owner Paul Hardy was happy he kept the ride.”

The kid thrived and his dad had a dilemma. "I was thinking at the time he'd have to go to England. He wanted to leave school and go to the Curragh but we signed him on as we wanted him to stay here. His mother wanted him to do the Leaving Cert.

"He rode about 15 winners for us but one day (agent) Ruaidhri Tierney said Ger (Lyons) wanted Colin to ride work for him; he liked how he rode at Dundalk. An agent for Mark Johnston was looking for him, as were others, but I knew he was a bit of a home bird and England wouldn't have suited him."

Lyons did not promise Keane anything but here we are in 2026 and he is still the yard's main man, his alliance with 2020 Irish Guineas winner Siskin helping to bring about the role of Juddmonte's retained rider and days like Saturday.

And it was Colin's relationship with the owners of True Self that led to the Wear A Pink Ribbon Syndicate and Crystal Black doing all those amazing things they did — Gerry Keane having a Royal Ascot winner two years ago bringing a wide grin to the faces of so many.

"It's funny but the first day he won, off 77 at the Curragh, was huge, as the lads like a bet and that was a big relief. I thought he'd a few pounds still in hand: little did I think he would rise as far as 113.

"Racing is funny: War Rooms cost a lot of money and he only finally got his head in front for the lads at Ballinrobe the other day. As for Crystal Black, he sort of was retired but we've done an operation on him and he might just come back yet."

For Gerry Keane, having owners like the Wear A Pink Ribbon Syndicate make the bad days much better: they take defeat well and have a lively COLM QUINN BMW Mile runner in Genuine Article. Laughifuwant, who took the Alnahoora for the yard in 2019, was of similar ability.

Keane adds: "He has an each-way chance. He is a nice horse, he has proven the last couple of years that he likes Galway and if he runs well he could go again Sunday (in the Alnahoora)."

Leigh Roche will ride the track most local to where he was weaned as Colin is at Glorious Goodwood. "We are in trouble with the draw but if Leigh has to use energy to get a position he might simply have to — there is a chance the race just will not work out and that's Galway."

Could what was once the people's race, Thursday's Guinness Galway Hurdle, go to one of the most likeable men in racing, with Ragmans Corner warming up for the same with a nice spin on the Flat at the Curragh?

"He is entitled to have a rattle at a big pot. He runs well every time he has gone to Galway. It's not as competitive as other years. If he ran his race I'd be hoping he has a good each-way chance."

It would be very much a Royal County story, as the in-form Eoghan Finnegan rides, though he cannot claim in a race of this stature. The last time the tall conditional rode Ragmans Corner to victory in May, he had a seven-pound allowance.

There was never a question of him being replaced, as is true to Gerry Keane. "Eoghan is a great grafter, comes in here once a week, and deserves everything he gets. He'd do anything to help you.

"Why would I jock him off? And the lads who own him are local lads to him, fond of him and were never going to jock him off."

There was a young man named Eoghan Finnegan and he had Ger Keane among his men again — one would need neither a bet nor a song to enjoy Ragmans Corner winning the Hurdle.