Galway is bliss for Ado McGuinness, and he knows nirvana, as a trainer with access to the Lusk coastline as balm for body and mind, equine and human.
he Hayestown handler has a remarkable record around Ballybrit, building it through the early days, as he scratched and clawed his way up the ladder from the time he was given a showjumper to condition and thought that maybe he could translate those skills to racing.
The facilities at Skylark House Stables have improved incrementally, along with the quality of those housed within, Bowerman providing McGuinness with his first Group success at Dundalk last September, 20 years after taking out his licence.
It has been a tricky balancing act. To progress, you want to keep your best horses, the same way Aston Villa want to retain Jack Grealish, Spurs Harry Kane and West Ham Declan Rice. But when the big money is put on the table, ambition has to cede to pragmatism and ensuring you have a business capable of continuing over a sustained period, when the reinvestment has to be astute.
“It is all about capital and getting the owners, getting what you can put into your barn,” McGuinness declares. “We spent £250,000 last week at the (Tattersalls July horses-in-training) sales to buy more horses. We bought four and there were two quite expensive ones in it. It is all about sourcing those type of horses to get back and keep you back. It’s about winning stakes races and winning those pots. That’s what counts.
“We always get a bunch of yearlings, but I am buying at the lower end of the yearling market. You have to be very lucky. We have sold two already this year to America after winning. You need to be able to do that as well. You have to buy and sell. The thing about it, if I come across an outstanding horse, the chances are I mightn’t be able to afford to keep it.
“You have to keep the business floating and that is that. If you even look at winning €100,000 in prize money in Ireland, which is not easy to win. I will end up with less, just seven per cent of that, so that is €7,000. Then I pay tax on top of that. It is not a whole pile of money. There is a lot of trainers in Ireland will not win €100,000 for the year.”
McGuinness, who celebrated his 56th birthday on Monday, is now operating at a higher level. He redeveloped his gallop to the tune of €120,000, added new stables and acquired a weighing machine to better cater for his stock.
His wife Hazel, children Lorna and twins Aisling and Tadhg, are vital contributors, while cousin Stephen Thorne has proven invaluable, particularly in helping to source and acquire stock from horses-in-training sales that have moved the yard forward.
McGuinness is first to muck in, harrowing gallops and driving the lorry to the races, so he gets very irked by the ‘sport of kings’ tag that is often used as a stick to beat racing with.
He wishes that the contribution of the industry to the Irish Exchequer — anywhere between €1bn and €1.8bn, depending on who you listen to — was as well publicised as the €76.8m investment by the State this year. Instead, because of the image and the perception that racing is about rich people raking in Government funds, it is an easy target.
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So, while the likes of Panorama was dealing with the important issue of what happens to race horses when their careers are over, and raised questions in terms of traceability, it was, in his eyes, a hatchet job.
“I drove up and down to Killarney for the first three days last week. And I had to do a half-day’s work before I left most days. I am not complaining about it, I love doing it, I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t love it. But I am sure there is a lot of people, if they were tracking me last week, they would be waving the white flag on Wednesday definitely at lunchtime.
“The amount of money going back to the country doesn’t get sold to the ordinary Joe Public. Take Galway. On the week of the Galway Races, if it was a normal week, there would be €45m, €50m generated in Galway. How much will the Government get out of that €50m? Same Champions Weekend, the same with the big sales, Goffs and Tatts and all that. There is a phenomenal amount of money that comes into the country, that comes in because of horse racing. I know people class it as a sport of kings. It is far from a sport of kings, I can tell you that, for most people.
“Panorama, I feel it was like nearly a dagger at one man [Gordon Elliott]. Totally wrong, and it is totally wrong. They are trying to say there was 4,000 horses killed in the last 20 months from Ireland in England. At any one time there is around 5,000 horses returned in training. What do all the British have? Probably twice the amount of horses in training or three times more. It doesn’t stack up. It is a vendetta against the Irish trainers . . . (There is) criminality, it is nothing to do with trainers and that is the sad part about that. We are getting tarred with it.”
He sent two horses to Irish Thoroughbred Agency director Suzy Barkley last week to be rehomed and gets a great kick out of following the progress of the charges he once trained.
“If the horse doesn’t suit, they take it back. They are never allowed to sell the horse that is rehomed. I certainly wouldn’t give a retired horse away to somebody if I felt it wasn’t safe to ride. But once it is safe, I give them away. Pivot Bridge, I gave away to a girl and it is up in Swords. She is jumping it away in riding clubs. He won a lot of races for me. The girl, she is in dream land with the horse and loves him.
“Beau Michael is at home with me, my daughter rode him in the RDS after he retired. She got a great kick out of riding him in the RDS and done a lot of showing with him all across the country. That is what happens a lot of these horses. You go into the RDS and see some of these ex-racehorses and they are treated very, very well.”
This is a big week. Saltonstall is bidding for a three-in-a-row in the Colm Quinn BMW Mile, with Cian MacRedmond, the in-form stable apprentice, likely to be on board. Star Harbour is another with a big chance, last week’s Killarney victory getting him into the race as he bids to improve on a dismal record for three-year-olds.
Sirjack Thomas might not get in but will appear at some point during the week. Current Option will make a bold bid to win the Ahonoora once more after a good run in Group 2 company last week. Spanish Tenor is a recent acquisition from Tim Doyle that the trainer hopes will show well. Laugh A Minute, Godhead, Politicised and Magnetic North are others that will be heading west.
“I am very happy with Saltonstall. We are going to claim off him. He just grows another leg down there the last couple of years. He has the top weight but I think the handicap will be very compressed.
“Galway, I love it, I love the place. I love training winners in it. I only hope I can train a few more next week in it. When we hadn’t got the good horses, we always nabbed a couple of winners down in Galway. For an ordinary guy starting off, a winner in Galway was worth two or three winners at a smaller track. Beau Satchel won three years on the trot down there. Beau Michael did, Bubbly Bellini, all them horses. It was very important.”
And it always will be.