'Please God he can do the job' - Owner Damien Dillon on supplementing The Passing Wife for the Albert Bartlett

The Passing Wife has been supplemented for the Grade 1 Albert Bartlett at Cheltenham. The horse had been third favourite for the Martin Pipe off a rating of 143, but the connections have opted to step up to the 3 mile event on Friday instead.

Damien Dillon, who has horses himself like the King of PRS, is involved in the Can’t Say No Syndicate who are the owners of The Passing Wife, and speaks to Niall Tierney of irishracing.com about; The Passing Wife, the syndicate itself, his journey into ownership and the experience of having horses with trainer Gavin Cromwell and jockey Keith Donoghue.

The decision to go for the Albert Bartlett

We were giving it serious consideration and the decision was left to Gavin as to where we go and what we do. But it’s definitely one we’ve talked about and we’ve looked at it and said, “Yeah, listen, maybe that’s the better race for him.”

He ran great at the start of the season in Gowran Park., we were just behind Skylight Hustle and Thedeviluno.

One is a Grade 1 winner now and the other is a Grade 2 winner, so that form looks very good. That was our first run in 16 months after coming back from a bad injury following his last win in Galway in 2024.

We obviously missed all of last season, but he’s kept improving. I suppose you can put a line through the run at Christmas in Leopardstown in the Grade 1 - he just didn’t show up that day. But he’s been improving all the time.

We saw him working and schooling during the week and he looked well and in great shape.

How did the "We Can't Say No" Syndicate come about?

It's a syndicate we set up in Punchestown. I do a work day-out on the Wednesday at Punchestown every year and I bring clients along. We had Gavin at the table with us and we said to him, “Have you any horses?”

He said, “Listen, we’ve a horse there that won a point-to-point.”

And I said, “Lads, right we can’t say no.”

There are six of us involved in it now and we’re having great craic with it. Hopefully next Friday we can go one better.

Please God he can do the job. I’m already waking at four or five o’clock in the morning and I can’t sleep. I don’t want to think about what I’ll be like this time next week.

I’ll be nervous. But listen, it’s where you want to be when you’re buying horses. Cheltenham is the dream, and to go there with a good chance like The Passing Wife has is an even better dream.

When did you first get involved in racehorse ownership?

I suppose horse racing has always been part of my life and I’ve always been a big fan.

Luckily enough, over the last number of years, I’ve been able to get involved in ownership. It was actually the lads who owned the Flooring Porter syndicate who put me in contact with Gavin, or pointed me in his direction.

Listen, we’ve had great success. With syndicates and personally, I’ve had great success since I’ve gone to him. Gavin is a brilliant trainer and very approachable. To watch him develop the yard and the facilities over the years has been a joy to watch. I think we’re moving in the right direction in his hands. He doesn’t steer us wrong with what we’re doing, which is great.

Looking at the Albert Barlett it is a very good race on paper, how confident are you going into it?

Yeah, if anything he does seem to get stronger as the race goes on and the longer distances look like they’ll suit him. A lot of people have been talking about the Punchestown race where he won quite convincingly - Keith didn’t have to touch him at all and he came home very strong.

In the Royal Bond, he only really started to get going after the second-last. He hasn’t run this distance before, but I think the step up in trip will help him. But it’s a very strong race.

There’s a fancied horse, Doctor Steinberg, owned by a friend of ours. We were out last night together and the craic and banter had already started, it’s been going for the last couple of weeks with Tom Gilligan.

He’s well fancied, and if we can turn up and do a job, we’d like to think we’d be there or thereabouts. But it’s a tough race. All the races at Cheltenham are tough races. To be going there with a live chance, that’s all you can ask for.

We leave it in Gavin’s hands. Gavin knows what he’s doing. He’s the one seeing the horse every day of the week. We only get down every now and again to see him.

He has faith in the horse and thinks he’s in great condition.Whatever he wants to do we are happy. That’s his job - that’s what we pay him to do for us. And listen, he hasn’t proved us wrong yet.

Keith Donoghue has a great relationship with the horse, how important is this for the Cheltenham Festival?

Yeah, Keith has a great relationship with him. He’s ridden him a number of times, won on him and been placed on him. He knows the horse and he knows how to ride him.

He’s a brilliant jockey and has had great success over his career. Hopefully next week he can have even more success on our lad and on the other horses he rides.

I think he and Gavin have had a tough winter, but I think next week it might all come together for them. Hopefully they’ll have a few results. Keith is good as well because when he comes back in, he gives you an honest opinion.

He doesn’t sugarcoat anything. He gives you a fair assessment of how the horse travelled and how he went. That’s all you want as an owner. You don’t want to be led up the garden path - you want to know exactly where you stand.

You have horses in your own colours as well, how are they coming along?

We’ll go to Aintree with the King of PRS. We said we’d give Cheltenham a miss this year - he ran there the last two years and didn’t turn up, so we’re skipping it this time.

We’ve one or two more on the way as well and a couple going out in syndicates. We’ve a nice one there, out of the Kopek Des Bordes bloodline, that’s in training at the moment. He’ll probably go for the Land Rover Bumper at Punchestown, so we’re looking forward to seeing him. We also have a nice Cokoriko that will probably be coming out soon.

You know yourself - you’re only as good as your last winner. We have to keep winning to pay the bills and keep bringing more horses in.

A few of the lads that are in The Passing Wife are also involved here as well. Most of the syndicates I’m involved in are the same group of lads, it’s all through the construction and property background that they’ve come together.

We saw you in the "Hood 2 Farm episode with British rapper Fekky, that must have been fun?

I’ll tell you something - it was brilliant. It was a brilliant day with him. He’s a character and I think we had him a bit worse for wear by the end of the night. But we had great craic with him.

He’s actually considering getting into ownership himself. He’s been on to me a couple of times about buying a horse, so we’ll see how that goes.

What is the plan for next week as an owner with a runner at the Cheltenham Festival?

I will be there for racing on Thursday and Friday, but I might go over Wednesday now as a couple of my friends have a horse running as well. I’ll be home on Saturday morning, hopefully back to celebrate with the cup in Sallins, please God.