Starting out -- charting Gavin Hernon’s plan to become a trainer

Gavin Hernon is about to set up as a licensed trainer. He’s young, ambitious, and internationally minded.

With experience of training yards in Ireland, Newmarket, Chantilly, and the USA, Gavin is hoping to launch his career in Chantilly. Over the coming months we’re going to be charting his progress, looking at all the highs and lows of a young trainer starting out.

In his own words:

I’m 26 years of age and from Cork (Ireland). Having grown up on a stud farm, I started in the racing industry with Jim Bolger and spent four years with him whilst at school and university, where I studied international commerce with French at UCD in Dublin. I had ambitions to be a jump jockey, but during my time with Mr Bolger, it quickly became apparent to everybody that this was not what nature had intended. So, through my passion for racing and all things horses, training seemed to be the route for me and I put France on a shortlist of places to do it from.

As part of my degree, I spent a year studying in France and learned the French language and the French culture. Thanks to Christy Grassick at Coolmore, I was able to secure a pupil assistant role with André Fabre and I simply fell in love with Chantilly. It’s a picture perfect training centre. Having spent the best part of the 2013 and 2014 seasons with Mr Fabre, I had my heart set on the place but was aware that with the vast array of gallops available I still had a lot to see, so in 2015 I decided to move one mile up the road to Mr Nicolas Clement. I am fortunate that both Nicolas and André were and remain to this day great mentors to me.

For the past year, I have been based with Graham Motion working as an assistant. I worked in Fair Hill (Training Center), Maryland, during the summer and spent the winter with his string at Palm Meadows (Training Center) in Florida. Leg maintenance, gate work, and the different medication usage were all of the utmost importance to my learning experience with Graham but above all else was the organisation and diligence required to run a business of that magnitude.

Why have I chosen Chantilly?...

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Brexit Interview - Andy Oliver

By Alex Cairns

Andy Oliver has held a training licence since 2004. Before setting up his self-contained establishment on his family farm in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, he qualified as an equine vet and spent time with trainer Mark Johnston in Yorkshire, England. Having built his owner base thanks to consistent success from relatively humble means, his career took off in 2011 when Flowers Of Spring registered a first stakes success for the yard in a Group 3 at Gowran Park. The good results continued in 2012, with Group 2 wins for First Cornerstone and Sendmylovetorose contributing to a prize money haul of over €490,000. In 2014, Team Valor’s Panama Hat flew the flag, racking up five consecutive handicap wins. Panama Hat went on the next year to prove he was much more than a handicapper, scoring at Listed and Group 3 level as well as running second in the American St Leger.

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Though stakes success has always been the yard’s ultimate aspiration, Oliver is also well known for sourcing good value stock and bringing along horses that might then be sold to race abroad. Sendmylovetorose was just a £5,000 purchase, and Oliver also handled future multiple Hong Kong Group 1 winner Luck Or Design and 2015 Queen Mother Champion Chase winner Dodging Bullets in the early stages of their careers.

The past two seasons have proven more challenging for the Oliver yard. Having had almost 300 runners on the Flat in Ireland in 2013, this number was down to 92 in 2017. Oliver has taken this time to regroup and recently finished upgrading his facilities. The revamped facility now features a five-furlong woodchip hill gallop, a seven-furlong woodchip gallop with a slight incline, and a three-and-a-half-furlong sand gallop. Such advanced infrastructure allows him to train any type of horse, whether Flat or National Hunt, and his 80 boxes have been steadily filling.

With a lot of work having been put in and difficult years weathered, Brexit is surely a complication Oliver could do without. It is still unclear whether a hard border will be instituted between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, but we can assume that the UK’s new arrangement with the EU will affect trade, transport, staff, and many other fundamental aspects of the racing industry. These issues will have a strong impact in both Britain and Ireland, with Northern Irish racing finding itself in a particularly precarious situation.

European Trainer spoke to Andy Oliver to gauge his thoughts on how Brexit might affect his business.

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Joseph O'Brien - King of the Hill

By Alex Cairns

Lineage matters in racing. The entire thoroughbred endeavour is based on selective breeding aimed at producing quality and even ‘perfection.’ Of course, thoroughbred breeding isn’t an exact science, with humbly bred horses sometimes defying their roots and blue-bloods regularly failing to live up to the promise of their page. But pedigree still reigns as the most reliable gauge of innate ability in racehorses.

In centuries gone by, humans too were judged on their parentage and given a particular standing based less on aptitude than origin. These days our social structure tends to be more of a meritocracy, in which people are born equal and gain a position through achievement.

Being the grandson of a successful trainer, son of two successful trainers, and nephew of a successful trainer, those in the racing game might say Joseph O’Brien has the perfect pedigree for the job and will logically excel.

At the same time, his background has afforded him a head start via a family owned yard and well-stocked address book. As we discovered in a recent interview, however, the soon-to-be-25-year-old takes nothing for granted and is determined that his operation will succeed on its own merits.

THE HILL

Severe snow and unseasonable cold had brought much of Britain and Ireland to a standstill in the week prior to our interview with Joseph O’Brien. Such conditions can prove a challenge even on the flattest, most accessible terrain. O’Brien’s yard, which operates under the banner of ‘Carriganog Racing,’ rests on the slopes of Owning Hill in County Kilkenny, a secluded location accessible only by small country roads.

This setting might be problematic in extreme weather, but it provides the foundation for a gallop that has proven its value in the training of several decades’ worth of winning racehorses. A steep uphill stretch of seven furlongs with a high hedge on one side, it was masterminded by Joseph’s grandfather Joseph Crowley. It then passed into the hands of Crowley’s daughter Annemarie. A certain Aidan O’Brien took the reins after marrying Annemarie, and then Annemarie’s sister Frances kept things in the family when the O’Briens moved to Coolmore’s famed training facility at Ballydoyle in 1996.

Stepping out of the crisp morning air into the yard office, Joseph reflects on his family’s longstanding relationship with this land. “Granddad originally came here and it was just fields. He had a few horses and started cantering them from the bottom of the hill to the top on a dogleg. Then Mum and Dad took over, then Frances. Over time it was a plough gallop, then artificial, but the layout is pretty much the same as it was 40 or 50 years ago. This office is actually where my bedroom used to be, though I don’t really remember living here as we moved over to Ballydoyle when I was four or five.”

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With two trainers as parents, Joseph has been steeped in the profession from day one, making the training vocation a question of both nature and nurture. “All my life I’ve been in this environment and training was always my goal. There was no backup plan, as I don’t know anything else, to be honest. I was raised at Ballydoyle and worked there from as soon as I was able. I went to Jim Bolger’s for a week for work experience at school, but other than that I never really saw anyone else training except Dad.”

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Trainer Profile: Colin Tizzard

“He’ll win the King George, two years’ time, you wait and see!” Given that the speaker is Colin Tizzard, who has saddled the last two winners of the Grade 1 chase, the opinion carries weight, but a warm chuckle from him downplays the gravity of his statement.

Tizzard, his son Joe, and a group of owners are in jovial mood as they watch a pair of promising young novices school upsides at the trainer’s Venn Farm Stables in Dorset, south-west England.

Home to some of the most successful trainers, past and present, in National Hunt (Jumps) racing, the region has long been a hotbed for the sport and also for Point-to-Point (PTP) racing, a related category of amateur thoroughbred racing over fences which is often a starting point in the careers of National Hunt jockeys, trainers, and horses.

Tizzard is one of a number of trainers in the area who have a background in Point-to-Points and have made a successful transition to racing under Rules. His team has firmly established itself as one of the top 20 National Hunt stables in the country season in and season out, having started with two pointers to support his son’s embryonic riding career more than two decades ago, while also running the family dairy farming business.

The stable’s run of form has notably progressed from very good to excellent in the past three years. Last season was Tizzard’s best to date, when he finished third in the trainers’ championship to the two trainers who have dominated the British National Hunt scene for the past decade or so, Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls.

So what has propelled Colin Tizzard to the highest echelons of the trainers’ table?

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Three generations of the Tizzard family make plans for morning work.

A family affair; Colin with his daughter Kim, a partner in the business, along with Joe. 

Looking to the future: Tizzard holds the new recruits to his string in high regard

Joe Tizzard with his nephew, Freddie Gingell

Colin with his mother Marjorie, a frequent visitor to the yard

Hindsight: Tommy Stack

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Published in European Trainer, January - March 2018, issue 60.

NEW: 'Hindsight' - Clive Brittain

Published in European Trainer - October - December 2017, issue 59

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In a training career spanning more than 40 years, Clive Brittain and his Carlburg Stables in Newmarket became synonymous with high-profile success in Britain and on the international racing scene.

Clive’s lengthy resume of top-flight wins includes six British Classics and overseas triumphs in the Breeders’ Cup Turf and Japan Cup, achieved by horses such as the legendary Pebbles, User Friendly, Jupiter Island and Warrsan.

Two years on from his retirement, Clive reflects on the pivotal moments and people in his amazing career.

During your time with Sir Noel Murless, you were part of the move from Beckhampton Stables to Newmarket, which has been your home for more than 60 years. What are your memories of working for Sir Noel Murless and what changes have you seen in Newmarket in this time?

“Sir Noel was a very good boss, a very fair man, and never changed. I started out as an apprentice jockey, but I made a very good stable man and went with Sir Noel and the team to Warren Place. At the time, the stable held around 70 horses, which was a lot in those days, as most of established trainers would have around 50 horses with Geoffrey Brooke possibly having around 60, most of which were two-year-olds.

“Sir Noel later became the first trainer to have more than 100 horses, but numbers today for the larger trainers are typically well over 150 horses per trainer. We later had 160 horses between two yards, Carlburg and one at Stetchworth, on Bill Gredley’s estate, of around 30 boxes.”

You achieved notable success with long-priced runners in the big races (such as Terimon's second in the 1989 Derby at 500/1). What do you think of the BHA's recent decision to put a minimum qualifying rating of 80 on contenders for the Group 1 races for three-year-olds and upwards?

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Profile: Julian McLaren

Published in European Trainer - October - December 2017, issue 59

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The rising star in Scandinavian racing

Julian McLaren was suddenly thrown into a trainer’s role less than two years ago and quickly started to make a name for himself on the Scandinavian racecourses. European Trainer caught up with the young Swedish trainer to discuss racing in Scandinavia, the new Stockholm racecourse, and how he overcome his fear of riding.

Growing up around racehorses, Julian McLaren always knew that he wanted to devote his life to horse racing. Having a trainer as a father and a racing administrator as a mother, the Swede has been a part of the Scandinavian racing community since before he could walk. “My dad, Alex McLaren, came to Sweden from Scotland in 1979 and started training near Stockholm shortly after,” Julian McLaren explains. “I grew up on the farm where he trained, and later we moved closer to the city and kept the horses at Täby Galopp.”

As a teenager, he spent most of his free time at the track, and once he finished school, his involvement in the racing industry became more serious. Valet, jockey’s agent, starting stall handler, and stable hand are only a few of the many roles Julian McLaren, now 30, has experienced.

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Christophe Ferland - A man with a plan

First published in European Trainer issue 58 - July - September 2017

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When Christophe Ferland is talking to you, you have his full attention. 

He might need to break off the interview for a few moments to deal with something at the yard or on the phone, or to look at a horse, but he will resume exactly where he stopped, without missing a beat. Is this ability to concentrate 100% on what he is doing one of the ingredients in the recipe for the success of French Flat racing’s rising star?

With a jockey-turned-head-lad for a father, Ferland cannot remember the first time he saw a horse. “But I do remember going racing with my father, although he was no longer a jockey at the time, and loving it!” he says now.

So, after a few years riding out in the morning for several renowned trainers including David Smaga and starting in a dozen races as a gentleman rider “without much success or passion, as I really lacked competitive spirit at the time,” he decided that training really captivated him. His mind was made up: he would be a trainer.'

“You have to keep searching – why something went wrong and how to correct it, what could still be improved even when things go well... Never take anything for granted.”

GALLERY

The Saviour of Greek Racing

First published in European Trainer issue 58 - July - September 2017

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Making progress and facilitating change in racing can be tough and time consuming. Doing it in a challenging economic environment makes it tougher still. With that in mind, the strides being made in Greece, where the racing industry had fallen to its knees, is both admirable and encouraging.

Making progress and facilitating change in racing can be tough and time consuming. Doing it in a challenging economic environment makes it tougher still. With that in mind, the strides being made in Greece, where the racing industry had fallen to its knees, is both admirable and encouraging.

The article “Greek racing hoping for revival of fortunes” published in Issue 45 of European Trainer offers a more detailed explanation of the decline of the sport in Greece. The scene at the new venue of Markopoulo, 35 kilometres from the capital, was far removed from the halcyon days of high betting turnover and large crowds at a vibrant track close to Athens.

However, in January, 2016, OPAP (a Greek-based betting company) was granted the licence to organise and conduct racing in Greece. Improved relations with the Greek Jockey Club, who are still responsible for the governance of the sport, have followed, as Costas Alexopoulos, chief of operations, explains. Alexopoulos says, “We have a very close relationship with the Jockey Club now. There have been differences but we cooperate very well.”

With the need for racing in Greece to become a commercial success, OPAP are keen to make the right calls, turning to Fin Powrie, a man with extensive international experience in the industry, to organise and implement a plan for change. The Australian previously worked in Dubai, Bahrain, India, New Zealand, and his homeland. Powrie speaks with enthusiasm about the work being done in Greece and seems encouraged by the progress made since his arrival.

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Profile: Dr Lynn Hillyer - The veterinary chief of Irish racing

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First published in European Trainer issue 57 - April '17 - June '17

Man o'War - The first 100 years

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First published in European Trainer issue 57 - April '17 - June '17

Charles Enderby - The Hexham racecourse supremo on the business of running an independent racecourse

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This article appeared in - European Trainer, Issue 55, October to December 2016

Punching above their weight - How Liz Doyle and Evanna McCutcheon fare against the big hitters

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Björn Zachrisson - Swedish racing’s great innovator

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Louisa Carberry - The up and coming French National Hunt Trainer in profile

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JEAN-PIERRE CARVALHO - the French trainer in Germany

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Meet Wesley Ward - preparing for Royal Ascot 2015

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