Winston Churchill and addiction wouldn’t have been obvious subject matters but, during two absorbing hours, this is a direction in which Barry Connell has taken us.
Connell holds a unique place in racing’s ecosystem. He’s the master of Boherbaun Stables in Kildare, a pristine facility over 45 acres that he designed himself, funded by the fruits of his labour from his first career as a stockbroker and hedge fund manager.
He rode winners as an amateur jockey, including a couple at Cheltenham, and loved it so much he didn’t hang up his saddle until he was 50; he has owned plenty of big winners, too, and his pursuit of a good horse once saw him spend €1million on the brilliant but ill-fated Our Conor.
But here, on this dank February day, he is holding court as an increasingly successful trainer, a David who is well capable of slaying Goliaths.
Racing enthrals him, horses captivate him and it doesn’t take long to appreciate he is wondering, at every minute, how he can keep finding marginal gains.
Trainer Barry Connell talked to Daily Mail Sport ahead of the Cheltenham Festival
‘It’s totally addictive,’ says Connell. ‘It’s the little details. I come down here in the morning for about 9am. I’ll wash them off and just being able to stand with them in their stables.
‘There is an energy that radiates off these horses – anyone who has been involved with them will tell you that.
‘It’s the quote from Churchill, you might know it: “The outside of a horse is good for the inside of a person” – it’s totally true.
‘You will find people who have worked with horses early in their career and gone off to do something else but they are drawn back to it. These are just magic creatures.’
We will come to Marine Nationale, the most magic of them all, soon but now, Connell commands centre stage.
As he takes us on a tour of the property – which was once owned by a German who fought in World War II and lived until he was 101 – it is clear why, to him, the horse is king.
Everything has been thought out, every decision has been taken to preserve peace and keep horses healthy and nothing embodies this approach more than the giant Enniskerry, who is 12 now but who allows 15 people to enter in his open air stable and stands, without reins, obediently as a pet.
‘He’s a dude, isn’t he?’ Connell asks. There is no need to answer.
Connell’s Marine Nationale won the Queen Mother Champion Chase last March
Enniskerry has paid his way down the years but it is Marine Nationale, along with Good Land and William Munney, who have taken Connell to the biggest days and, in his yellow and navy silks, given the operations of Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott and Henry de Bromhead much to ponder.
‘What we have been able to do over the last number of years, with the Cheltenham winners, the placed runners and so forth, it’s been so satisfying,’ he says.
‘We have our own little yard, our own system and when we are able to take on the big guns, it gives you an extra sense of satisfaction.
‘Racing is like the way every sport has gone – Formula One, soccer or whatever. The really well-funded operations are the only ones that can compete at the highest levels.
‘When I started off, there would have been a huge middle tier, stables that had 40 to 50 horses. Most of them are gone.
‘We have experts in every area here. We operate on a different basis to the big stables, who know they have 100 orders for next season.
‘It’s just the quality of staff we have, we try to keep it simple. I thought we could give it a good go. Never in a million years did I think we’d have this success.
‘So, you either have 250 to 300 horses and you make the economics work – or you have a small family-run operation, where you maybe have one employee. Otherwise, it just doesn’t work. I’m sure it’s the same in the UK. We are trying to be a niche operator. We’re just trying to have quality horses.’
Marine Nationale’s win came less than a month after Michael O’Sullivan, Connell’s former stable jockey, had been killed in a fall at Thurles
The approach is paying handsome dividends. Bounding around on a perfectly circular two-furlong gallop – the surface of which is thick, cloying Wexford sand: in other words, hard work – are four animals who are bursting with health.
Eachoftheirown is one who catches the eye and, four weeks today, he will line-up in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, the race Connell won with Marine Nationale in 2023; don’t let current odds of 50/1 with some bookmakers kid you that he has no chance.
‘We thought he was a certainty for the Royal Bond at Fairyhouse in November but he was off-colour on the day,’ Connell notes, candidly. ‘He won his last race at Thurles as we expected. He’ll run well in Cheltenham.’
So, too, will Marine Nationale. He won the Queen Mother Champion Chase last March, the victory hugely poignant as it came less than a month after Michael O’Sullivan, Connell’s former stable jockey, had been killed in a fall at Thurles.
Cheltenham, as Connell told this reporter 12 months ago, is a place where ‘strange and magical things happen’ so for Marine Nationale to deliver success in such emotionally charged circumstances in the contest his owner-trainer wanted to win ‘even more than the Gold Cup’ was remarkable.
But it wasn’t a fluke: Marine Nationale has rare ability and, while many think a lacklustre run on gluey ground at Leopardstown last week means his chances of retaining his crown have evaporated, the twinkle in Connell’s eye tells you different.
‘I’m quite analytical and love looking at Race IQ data,’ he says. ‘It’s there in front of you: we lost 15 lengths to Majborough at Leopardstown on the jumping index. We got beaten by 13 lengths – that’s a fact.
‘I say what I think and I suppose people are fed up of me talking up my own horses.
‘But I will make an exception for him. I know how good he is. It’s so easy with him, as they say the good ones train themselves.
‘We are lucky he has landed in our yard. He is a special animal; He’s not even a once in a lifetime horse, he’s a one in ten thousand lifetimes.’
