INTERVIEW EDWARD O'GRADY:EDWARD O'GRADY has been a trainer for almost 40 years but the tiny margins which decide the difference between victory and defeat still prey on his mind.
Less than a month ago, O’Grady had two of the favourites for Fairyhouse’s triple Grade One “Winter Festival” card. Catch Me sought back-to-back wins in the Hattons Grace Hurdle and Pesoto was fancied for the Drinmore.
They left their Co Tipperary base with high hopes riding on them but just miles from the track came confirmation that racing had been abandoned due to waterlogging. The journey home was long and frustrating.
Both returned for the rescheduled fixture three days later but the 72-hour delay took its toll. Catch Me could manage only fourth. Pesoto was pulled up.
“They were so right going up there the first day and it is very hard to reproduce that, even a few days later. It’s like trying to boil a kettle the second time,” their trainer remembers ruefully.
It’s getting such judgments right when it counts most that distinguishes the really top trainers and the length of O’Grady’s career since he first took out a licence in 1971 testifies to his ability to do just that.
Statistically it is his 18 winners at the Cheltenham festival that stand out. They make him the current most successful Irish trainer at the festival that counts most of all. But while March in the Cotswolds will always be the ultimate benchmark, O’Grady will never be guilty of underestimating what happens during the Christmas period.
“The way I gear my stable, it’s important. This is when our good horses culminate their first half of the season. After Christmas we’ll give them an easy period and then strive to peak again in March and April.
“What I’ve noticed is that the programme has changed quite dramatically over the last few years, with some very good races run in January. Possibly I should revise my ideas but I’m going to stick with the way I’ve been doing things. I suppose it’s different strokes for different blokes,” he considers.
The O’Grady way has always been to prepare slowly but surely for a target and have the kettle whistling shrilly at a precise time.
Already this season, Tranquil Sea has been brought back from possible life-threatening injuries to justify favouritism in the prestigious Paddy Power Gold Cup at Cheltenham.
The ex-John Oxx trained Alaivan did enough on his jumping debut earlier this month to catapult himself to ante-post favouritism for the Triumph Hurdle and Osana is a prime candidate for Leopardstown’s St Stephen’s Day feature.
With Catch Me also destined for Grade One action over the Christmas period at Leopardstown, along with Jumbo Rio and the afore-mentioned Tranquil Sea, the cream of O’Grady’s yard will be in action and that represents one of the most powerful National Hunt squads in the country.
It is a prospect to relish, and certainly one to make the daily grind of preparing such a team during a time when most of the rest of the country is kicking back hardly seem like a chore. For O’Grady, it is a case of the busier the better. But even for someone at the top of the game, this is a Christmas that will take place against an unprecedented economic backdrop.
A severe drop in prize money is just the most visible element of how the current crisis is impacting on racing. Brian Lenihan’s budget took over €7 million more from a Horse Racing Ireland fund that had already been cut twice. The only thing rising is the rate of job losses, and a pessimistic mood is all-pervasive in the industry. Even for someone who experienced the worst of the 1970s and 1980s this is something else again.
“This is by far more severe than anything I’ve seen before. The vast majority of trainers have been grossly affected by the banks who, from what I’ve seen, have behaved appallingly. The banks not releasing funds has had a dramatic effect on everything. That’s something that never happened, and the banks have never treated Joe Public like this ever before,” says O’Grady.
Nor can he offer any crumb of comfort along the lines that the worst may be over. 2009 has been a remarkably successful year for Irish horses, both on the flat and over jumps, but it could also be the medium for a lot of nostalgia during the upcoming decade.
“I think we can expect worse again. Anyone who has a nice horse now will continue with them. But everything has only a certain racing lifespan. The problem is going to be replacing the current horses when they come to the end of their careers. I fear a lot less will be replaced than we were used to so it’s going to get much grimmer.
“We can’t stress how important prize money is. It’s the basis of the whole industry. In the past if an owner gave a hundred thousand for a horse, you could legitimately sit him down and say the horse has a legitimate chance of winning that, or more, over a certain period. I don’t know if such criteria can be used now,” he says.
O’Grady’s strength in many of the quality events occurring during the Christmas and New Year holidays is counteracted by what he points to as a lack of strength in his team for bumpers and maiden hurdles – “We’re very short in those and they are the future, so the natural corollary is there will be an impact.”
In overall strength for the major Christmas races, however, it is a very different story with Osana, the 2008 Champion Hurdle runner-up when trained by David Pipe, set to take on Sizing Europe in the Grade Bord Na Mona Novice Chase on St Stephen’s Day. Alaivan, who races in the same colours, will attempt to maintain an unbeaten record over jumps in the Grade Two Juvenile Hurdle on the same card.
“You couldn’t fail to be impressed by Alaivan at Gowran and it was the gratifying to see the second and fourth that day fight out a finish at Clonmel afterwards. As Andrew (McNamara) said afterwards, the horse is far from the finished article and if he improves, he will have a shot at wherever he goes,” O’Grady says.
“Osana has taken to fences well. He has a good appetite for jumping and I’m hoping two miles will be fine for him,” he adds. “I think Sizing Europe may be the best horse around and it is a case of how close we can get, or beat him. But whoever wins that race will deserve to be favourite for the Arkle at Cheltenham.”
Stable jockey Andrew McNamara will again be in charge of business in the saddle, a situation that O’Grady is more than satisfied with.
“I think Andrew has improved appreciably. He’s a very good horseman and we communicate well,” he says. “He is very cool, never rushes. In fact sometimes I wish he’d perk up a bit!”
It is Tranquil Sea however who has both trainer and jockey dreaming of glory in National Hunt racing’s ultimate prize, the Cheltenham Gold Cup. It won’t be this season, as the Ryanair is his major target in March. To that end, Sunday’s Dial-A-Bet Chase over two miles has been chosen for Tranquil Sea instead of the three-mile Lexus. But O’Grady is already thinking long-term.
“I think the Lexus will be in his future but it would be a step too soon this time.
“Because we have the Ryanair in mind we don’t want to tax his stamina too soon. But if he continues to go forward, I’m hopeful he can be a Gold Cup horse at another time,” he says.
“We had a choice of the two races at Leopardstown. There’s nothing in between so we decided the two miles is the lesser of two evils. But two miles and one around there will be okay,” he adds.
Other Grade One hopefuls will be Catch Me in Monday’s Knight Frank Novice Chase over three miles and Jumbo Rio who takes on the big boys in Tuesday’s December Festival Hurdle.
“It’s a big ask for a four-year-old like Jumbo Rio but there’s nowhere else to go. He has run three times at Auteuil which is a 36 to 46 hour journey, one way, so it’s easier to just go to Dublin. It’s his first time taking on the older horses but he has come out of his last race in France very well and I’m hoping for another brave run,” he says.
One thing that has come out of Catch Me’s fruitless return to hurdles for the Hatton’s Grace has been a boost to his confidence that has shown itself in some encouraging schooling sessions over fences since then.
He takes on the best staying novices over three miles but a sound jumping display will see his undoubted class come into play.
All he needs now is for the race to start on time.
Edward O'Grady in Brief
Stables: Ballynonty, Thurles, Co. Tipperary.
Stable Jockey:Andrew McNamara.
Best Horse:Golden Cygnet (1978 Supreme Novices Hurdle).
Other Major Winners include:Flame Gun (1978 Stayers Hurdle), Mister Donovan (1982 Sun Alliance Hurdle), Bit Of Skite (1983 Irish Grand National), Northern Game (1984 Triumph Hurdle), Sound Man (1995 Tingle Creek Chase), Ned Kelly (2002 AIG Irish Champion Hurdle), Back In Front (2003 Supreme Novices Hurdle.)
Most Valuable Success This Season:Tranquil Sea (Paddy Power Gold Cup.)
