Eddie Power makes great start with his point-to-point string Eddie Power was once hands on with speed machines Gordon Lord Byron and Newmill — but is happy to concentrate on stamina these days. Former jockey Power can name-check Tom Hogan’s famously durable sprinter and the John Joseph Murphy-trained 2006 Queen Mother Champion Chase winner as the two highest-profile equine talents with which he was associated across the codes. He has taken on a new guise, however, as a point-to-point trainer — and could hardly have made a better start after sending out two winners and a runner-up already after his first month with a licence. “I said I’d give it one go — and so far it’s working out very well for me,” said Power — who has taken a circuitous route to his latest job, having considered the breeze-up sales route or heading to college and outside of the racing industry at one point. He also had a stint with trainer Pat Doyle, his neighbour in County Tipperary, and it was then that the spark was reignited for man who has spent most of his life around horses. A Robin Des Champs gelding called Perpignan has top billing in his current affections, having supplied him with successes at Belharbour and Oldtown. “I’d be very good friends with Paddy (Twomey), who had Perpignan,” said Power. “He’s been very very good to me over the years — and I’ve learnt an awful lot from him. “Paddy is going to concentrate fully on the Flat. He had two National Hunt horses left — we came to an arrangement, and I have them now. “Paddy wanted to give me a chance to get going as well. I was talking about it for a while — so this was my chance, along with an Arakan filly called Zero To Hero.” On February 3, Power announced his arrival on the scene when Perpignan scored at Belharbour and across the country Zero To Hero finished second at Ballinaboola. The latter was subsequently sold for 30,000 pounds at Tattersalls’ Ireland Cheltenham Sale — and is one to watch out for in Britain according to Power. It is an opinion worth trusting, given Power’s racing pedigree. “In my time with Tom Hogan I was lucky enough to go travelling with Gordon Lord Byron,” he added. “We were in Hong Kong three or four times, and I was in Australia with him for three months. “Fortunately I got to meet some of the best trainers in the world on those travels. “I got to pick their brains — everything that they would be doing, I’d be quizzing them as to why they were doing it. “I’ve just always been very interested in how to get the best out of an animal.” Nobody could begrudge Power some fortune after hearing of the knocks he suffered when riding. “I always seemed to pick up injuries at the wrong time,” he said. “One year, I was flying it — and (then) I broke my hand. “I was out for a good bit with that but came back and ended up being beaten by just one winner for the conditional jockeys’ title. “A very bad fall in Kilbeggan in 2013 finally ended my riding career. I cracked two vertebrae and shattered one. I ended up getting two rods and 14 screws put in my spine.” Life in the saddle was not all bad, though — far from it. “I won the Grade Two Kinloch Brae at Thurles on Newmill. “I rode him at the November meeting in Cheltenham too — I was fourth on him then to Well Chief. “I won two graded races on John Murphy’s juvenile hurdler Convincing. I was claiming seven for the first of them, and then I went on to land a Leopardstown Grade Two on him (in February 2007).”
