Recent Quotes
Fri, 13th Mar, 2026 Gaelic Warrior He’s such a cool jockey and a superb horse, it was a hell of a performance. Rich has already won the Champion Hurdle this week and Paul won that and the Champion Chase, it’s incredible.
Fri, 13th Mar, 2026 Apolon De Charnie I loved the horse’s attitude — when he heard the Cheltenham roar, he put down his head and was very brave.
Fri, 13th Mar, 2026 Gaelic Warrior It was a great ride by Paul. I haven’t seen the race, but I’ve heard it was! It’s been a great week, incredible, great racing, great winners, a good race today. I’m pleased for the horse. We try to buy Gold Cup winners, but we’ve never managed it before today. We’ve reached the mountain, but I love the game, it’s kept me involved all these years, the passion of the people. They take me as they find me, I’m not the easiest man, I’m an American, I’m loud, obnoxious, this that and the other, but the people have been good to me and long may it last. I always like to watch the race through my binoculars rather than on the screen and I could tell by Paul’s body language how he was going, I knew he was going well. This guy has to be up there with every one of my other Gold Cup winners, just because of the manner of his victory. Rich has been such a supporter of Closutton from the very start so to do something like this for him is fantastic. When he put in that huge jump at the fourth-last and landed in front I wondered if he had landed in front too soon and I was hoping nothing would come from behind. But when I looked at Paul I could see how confident he was. Paul has nerves of steel and to be on so much horse over the last three, he just sat there waiting.
Fri, 13th Mar, 2026 Dinoblue It was a competitive race and I think she got an excellent ride from Mark and what more can I say, I’m just very happy. One thing Mark said when he got off her was that her jumping today was magical. The last ditch she jumped so well and took her into the race and she was just competitive then. Mark didn’t want to go that far out but what could he do. She’s very uncomplicated, a lovely mare and she’s a good match with Mark. That looked her best performance without going through the form book. We’d been worried about the trip before but there didn’t seem to be any problem with anything this year â€” ground, trip but especially her jumping, that was extraordinary. If you had a horse jump like that every day of the week, it would make this game easy. I don’t know when she might go off to stud, the main difference between the Irish and French is that in France they’d go off to stud with her, but we treat these mares as racehorses and if they are good we tend to keep them. I’ll leave that up to the owner. There’s nice mares’ races for her left this season, so I’d imagine she’d stick to them.
Fri, 13th Mar, 2026 Apolon De Charnie He was fantastic. He’s not very big, but he just caught my eye. I don’t usually watch the juveniles at home, but he caught my eye and I got a dream run everywhere. I’m very proud of my father. I’ve never seen him doubt himself as much as he has this winter. You get a lot of advice from people about what you’re doing wrong, but he sticks to his guns and gets it right most of the time.
Fri, 13th Mar, 2026 Apolon De Charnie He was fantastic. He’s not very big, but he just caught my eye. I don’t usually watch the juveniles at home, but he caught my eye and I got a dream run everywhere. I’m very proud of my father. I’ve never seen him doubt himself as much as he has this winter. You get a lot of advice from people about what you’re doing wrong, but he sticks to his guns and gets it right most of the time.
Fri, 13th Mar, 2026 Apolon De Charnie He was fantastic. He’s not very big, but he just caught my eye. I don’t usually watch the juveniles at home, but he caught my eye and I got a dream run everywhere. I’m very proud of my father. I’ve never seen him doubt himself as much as he has this winter. You get a lot of advice from people about what you’re doing wrong, but he sticks to his guns and gets it right most of the time
Tue, 10th Mar, 2026 Lossiemouth To win the Champion Hurdle definitely outranks everything else she’s done. But to come back here with four years in a row is an achievement in itself.
Mon, 9th Mar, 2026 Mighty Park When Mark (Walsh) got off Mighty Park, he said he had a look around at the second-last and he couldn’t believe how far in front he was. He thought he was going a normal pace, so his cruising speed must be huge.
Thu, 12th Mar, 2026 Bambino Fever Looking at Bambino Fever and looking at the ground, I thought ‘this ground is going to be too good for her’ and sure enough she wasn’t able to act on it.
Wed, 11th Mar, 2026 Il Etait Temps It took him 24 hours to recover when he came home. He was a bit shaken and then he had to get on the ferry and come home and that’s not how you’d like to do it, but it was a case of what we did and once he got home he settled into his routine and recovered quite quickly. We just had to get the spark back into him. We took the hood off and tweaked a few things at home and galloped him a bit differently, a bit like Lossiemouth (Tuesday’s Champion Hurdle winner), and it’s worked. I thought Paul was very brave on him today as obviously he couldn’t go the pace they were setting for the first mile, but I could see coming down the hill Paul was happy and he had his position coming to the final bend. I think the better ground maybe helped him. I was wondering whether he was a horse who didn’t like this place, but when went through his form at Cheltenham we found excuses for every day. We took the hood off him as we had to do something different. From when he was a young horse he was very keen and always wore the hood, but when he disappointed we said he had to change something. Paul was very good on him today. I had a bit of a heart attack at the last, but it looked he had plenty of horse underneath him.
Cheltenham Wed, 11th Mar, 2026 Kitzbuhel It was a very brave performance from Kitzbuhel to jump out and make all. Heading to the last and looking at Paul (Townend, on Final Demand) I thought he had him covered, but by the line Kitzbuhel was going away again. When you have a grey horse who loves to make the running, there’s been some brilliant ones down the years and they build up a big following. It’s been a lucky colour for me, my first winner as a trainer was a grey and as an owner. It’s great for Joe and Marie (Donnelly) given the bad luck they’ve had with State Man and Sir Gino this year, to have a third one up to winning Grade Ones is great. At least he was back to himself as his previous run at Sandown he didn’t jump out and he didn’t look himself in the parade ring, but Harry said he knew going to the start he was in great form. Given what he did at Kempton, which is right-handed and flat, to come here and down left on a left-handed undulating course speaks volumes. You’d have to be looking at the Gold Cup, but given how he whizzed around Kempton at Christmas the King George will definitely be on his agenda.
Wed, 11th Mar, 2026 Kitzbuhel It was a very brave performance from Kitzbuhel to jump out and make all. Heading to the last and looking at Paul (Townend, on Final Demand) I thought he had him covered, but by the line Kitzbuhel was going away again. When you have a grey horse who loves to make the running, there’s been some brilliant ones down the years and they build up a big following. It’s been a lucky colour for me, my first winner as a trainer was a grey and as an owner. It’s great for Joe and Marie (Donnelly) given the bad luck they’ve had with State Man and Sir Gino this year, to have a third one up to winning Grade Ones is great. At least he was back to himself as his previous run at Sandown he didn’t jump out and he didn’t look himself in the parade ring, but Harry said he knew going to the start he was in great form. Given what he did at Kempton, which is right-handed and flat, to come here and down left on a left-handed undulating course speaks volumes. You’d have to be looking at the Gold Cup, but given how he whizzed around Kempton at Christmas the King George will definitely be on his agenda.
Cheltenham Wed, 11th Mar, 2026 King Rasko Grey I looked at the big screen after the race and I couldn’t believe he was 11-1. I thought he was one of ours coming here with a really good chance. You never have a banker coming to Cheltenham, but I thought he would be 2-1 or 3-1 max after his run at the Dublin Racing Festival. I wasn’t tipping him to my friends as I thought he’d be too short for them – they’re all very poor!. I said after the Leopardstown that he would step forward. I thought he was a little short going into that and I expected him to improve. I think Paul chose to ride this horse straight away, there was no debate, and I thought the same – to me this fellow was head and shoulders above a lot of the horses here. It’s great for the Turleys after the disappointment (with Galopin Des Champs) earlier in the week, it’s fantastic for them to have a winner here.
Tue, 10th Mar, 2026 Lossiemouth She has that mare’s pedigree which gives her that bit of speed and the cheekpieces, I think, just made a huge difference,. It made her concentrate that bit more and, you know, as horses get older they probably, like the rest of us, we start looking for ways out of doing hard work and this really invigorated her. When I saw her working in them the other morning and when she pulled up, Paul pulled up and, you know, I spoke to him and we both had the same feeling that this was the way to go. And then the race looked so open we thought, well, why not, let’s go for it. Well, you know, we were all anxious until the third-last and then I saw her hitting the third-last spot on and I looked back at JP’s (McManus) colours (The New Lion) and I thought, right, he’s starting to come under pressure and I thought when he was coming under pressure he was the one I was worried about. To win the Champion Hurdle definitely outranks everything else she’s done. But to come back here with four years in a row is an achievement in itself but then to win four years is, she’s gone Triumph, Mares’ twice and then this and it’s been superb. Just 12 months ago State Man would have left her for dead. When State Man fell last year, he might have brought her down!
Tue, 10th Mar, 2026 Kargese Kargese jumped superbly and had far more experience than Kopek which has stood to her at the finish. It’s a nice feeling watching two of your own fight out the finish and you think of Annie Power but surely two of them wouldn’t fall at the last, at least one of them would get over you hope. We all need Cheltenham winners and it’s great for Danny and it’s fabulous to get off the mark for the week. I thought Danny gave her a tremendous ride and he used all the attributes that she has Ã¢€” when he wanted a jump at the last, he got it. We were happy Lulamba was up with Kargese and my worry was that Kopek might get in front with Kargese and the two of them might run the powder out of each other. She’s tough and she gives herself a hard race, even over hurdles as a juvenile and everything since. We couldn’t believe how well she finished off her season as a juvenile. She’s a really tough nut. She looks like a Champion Chase horse, but we’ll have to decide.
Tue, 10th Mar, 2026 Kargese Kargese jumped superbly and had far more experience than Kopek which has stood to her at the finish. It’s a nice feeling watching two of your own fight out the finish and you think of Annie Power but surely two of them wouldn’t fall at the last, at least one of them would get over you hope. We all need Cheltenham winners and it’s great for Danny and it’s fabulous to get off the mark for the week. I thought Danny gave her a tremendous ride and he used all the attributes that she has ÃƒÂ¢€” when he wanted a jump at the last, he got it. We were happy Lulamba was up with Kargese and my worry was that Kopek might get in front with Kargese and the two of them might run the powder out of each other. She’s tough and she gives herself a hard race, even over hurdles as a juvenile and everything since. We couldn’t believe how well she finished off her season as a juvenile. She’s a really tough nut. She looks like a Champion Chase horse, but we’ll have to decide.
Tue, 10th Mar, 2026 Kargese Kargese jumped superbly and had far more experience than Kopek which has stood to her at the finish. It’s a nice feeling watching two of your own fight out the finish and you think of Annie Power but surely two of them wouldn’t fall at the last, at least one of them would get over you hope. We all need Cheltenham winners and it’s great for Danny and it’s fabulous to get off the mark for the week. I thought Danny gave her a tremendous ride and he used all the attributes that she has ÃƒÆ’Ã†’Ãƒâ€šÃ‚Â¢€” when he wanted a jump at the last, he got it. We were happy Lulamba was up with Kargese and my worry was that Kopek might get in front with Kargese and the two of them might run the powder out of each other. She’s tough and she gives herself a hard race, even over hurdles as a juvenile and everything since. We couldn’t believe how well she finished off her season as a juvenile. She’s a really tough nut. She looks like a Champion Chase horse, but we’ll have to decide.
Sat, 7th Mar, 2026 Dromard He's a lovely big horse and we just couldn't get him ready in time for Cheltenham. When we saw the Doc's bumper, we put him aside for that. He looks a real nice prospect,. I was worried as Josh Halley's horse was running a cracker, but this fellow is by Doctor Dino and he's a horse I like. They don't normally win on this heavy ground but this fellow is a big, old-fashioned chaser type and he relished it.Ã‚ . If the ground doesn't get too dry in the spring, we would keep him for Fairyhouse or Punchestown.
Leopardstown Mon, 2nd Mar, 2026 El Fabiolo It was a nice performance, hopefully now he’s just coming to himself,. I think he should improve again for a bit of nicer ground as the spring goes on and the final of the series in Punchestown is going to be the big aim for him. We had him qualified already and this race just fitted in nicely.
Navan Sat, 28th Feb, 2026 James du Berlais it was a good performance and I thought they went a good gallop. It is very heavy ground down the back straight and, riding this horse, I'm a hostage to fortune as I have to ride him like that. There also wasn't a whole lot left in the tank from the back of the last fence. He's a great horse, I'm delighted to win on him and really enjoy riding him. He's a really talented horse when the scenario sets up for him. He ran in a Champion Hurdle (finishing ninth in 2021) and he was second in a Topham (2024) and fifth in the race last year.
Clonmel Thu, 26th Feb, 2026 Kiely's Place I think he is a very good horse and is ahead of my horse King Of Aces who won here last month. He is for sale to stay in the yard, and he is a chaser really. The runner-up had a run, which was my worry, but I thought he could definitely give him a rattle. I had him entered for auction races as he sold for €5,000 at a sale but he sold post-sale, so unfortunately wasn't qualified, and he wasn't that cheap when I bought him!. His previous trainer Eugene O'Sullivan recommended him highly and his nephew Alan O'Sullivan was also very sweet on him, and that is what he has been showing us at home. I'd be hoping he is a graded horse, and he'll go over fences next year.