Birrane ready for winter season County Mayo trainer Fergal Birrane took a cautious approach and was happy to report his Killala operation escaped the rigours of Monday's Storm Ophelia.   "I didn't let the staff ride out yesterday, just in case, because of the red alert.  I was afraid in case something would happen so we just kept all the horses in for the day," he reported.   "As it turned out we actually had no wind at all here much.  It just passed over us for some reason.  Another trainer rang me who is only two miles away and he said they had bad wind and rain.  We just seemed to be pocketed here some way."   Birrane is looking forward to the winter season in Dundalk with his Daniel MacAuliffe and Anoj Don owned horses.   "We've two entered next Friday and we have some more to run there in the weeks ahead," he revealed.   "We've more coming along too as they've got a good few yearlings bought as well.  There are a few Camelot yearlings there so hopefully there's something nice amongst them.   "They had a good win lately with Fighting Irish in France."   That Harry Dunlop-trained juvenile landed last Friday's Group 2 Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte under Cristian Demuro.     Daniel MacAuliffe and Anoj Don are based in Heathrow, and they're in the staff recruitment, as well as construction and roofing businesses.   There are pros and cons to his west of Ireland location but in general Birrane is happy with his lot.   "It's just over four hours to get to Dundalk and we're kind of used to it at this stage," he reflected.   "With the new motorway (Tuam to Gort) it took me three hours to get to Mallow (Cork) last Saturday.  It made an awful difference.   "My own background is in sport horses but a bit of everything really — breaking, and I'm a riding instructor as well.   "We have access to four miles of beach to work the horses on here.  We swim them as well.   "In addition to that we have our own gallops — a mile polytrack.   "We've our own stalls and exercise walkers and everything so we've a mighty facility altogether.   "Sir Danilo (three times runner-up) has gone very close to putting a win on the board for us.  He's been gelded so we're hoping for more from him.  It's awful hard over here with the level of competition but it'd be great if we could get off the mark soon."
