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Stamullen Meath
County Kildare-born trainer John McConnell trains in the village of Stamullen, County Meath and although primarily a National Hunt trainer, he has plenty of winners to his name on the Flat too.
Taking out his licence in 2021, it took him a fair while to get off the mark but he eventually did with the Brian Byrnes-ridden Grand Lili at Bellewstown in June 2005. The operation has grown since then and the yard has plenty of winners across both codes.
McConnell has Group winners on the Flat to his name, but perhaps more importantly, one Cheltenham Festival winner. Added to that, he has had more winners at Cheltenham than any other track, despite being a regular visitor to the Scottish tracks where the racing is less competitive.
vCareer statistics
Interestingly, although he's perhaps better known as a National Hunt trainer, he has had more than double the amount of runners on the Flat in Ireland than he has over jumps. He has 220 Flat winners from 4,328 runners, 95 of which have come at Dundalk.
A grand total of 172 National Hunt winners from 2,080 runners is fairly respectable, especially as it's so hard for anyone outside of the top five to achieve plenty of winners in Ireland in the last decade or so.
McConnell's strike-rate is significantly healthier over in Britain, currently operating at 19 per cent and 16 per cent over Jumps and on the Flat respectively. As previously mentioned, he has 12 winners at Cheltenham, whilst Wolverhampton is his most successful Flat track.
John McConnell is a qualified vet, which is certainly a handy qualification to have as a trainer!
Seddon provided him with his first and so far only Cheltenham Festival winner in the 2023 Magners Plate Handicap Chase.
Completing a hat-trick that day, he previously won a handicap hurdle at Cheltenham in October and bolted up in a Leopardstown handicap. The same horse also ran in the American Grand National, where he finished third.
The aforementioned Seddon was probably the most significant, as his Cheltenham Festiva success put McConnell on the map. Jockey Ben Harvey was claiming 5lb that day and the pair were prominent throughout, before kicking clear in the final half-a-furlong.
A Case Of You earned McConnell his first Group success on the Flat back in October 2020 and the then two-year-old scored in the Anglesey Stakes, getting the better of Aidan O?Brien's Call Me Teddy by a length-and-a-quarter.
Mahler Mission was a bit of a flag-bearer for the yard, winning the Grade 2 River Don Novices' Hurdle at the expense of The Real Whacker back in 2022.
He looked well set to win the 2023 National Hunt Challenge Cup until an unfortunate fall at the second-last.
