McGuinness Reflects On Career-Best Year

This year has been a landmark one for Dublin trainer Adrian 'Ado' McGuinness with a personal best of 28 Irish flat wins and just over €400,000 in prize-money. In fact, the last two seasons have seen a significant upturn in the fortunes of the McGuinness stable, and while the higher calibre of horse the trainer has at his disposal is no doubt a factor, so too is the organizational structure of the business. Two years ago, Godolphin Flying Start graduate Stephen Thorne–a second cousin and neighbour of McGuinness–joined the trainer as his assistant and it is clear the arrangement is working out well.

“It's been our best-ever 12 months and we've got an even better quality of horse for 2019 so hopefully we can progress again,” McGuinness told the TDN on a cold December morning at his Rush-based yard. McGuinness has indeed high hopes for 2019 and is planning a dual assault on two major early-season targets: the Irish and English Lincolns at Naas and Doncaster, respectively. The trainer came close to pulling off the Irish leg this year when bargain buy Aussie Valentine (Ire) (Aussie Rules) finished third at Naas in March and McGuinness and Thorne think they may have two new ideal candidates for the two races in three months' time. Sirjack Thomas (Ire) (Fast Company {Ire}) and Saltonstall (GB) (Pivotal {GB}), two exciting additions to the yard via the autumn horses in training sales, will spearhead the challenge and McGuinness said he is hopeful the pair will be among the yard's flagbearers throughout the year.

“The level of prize-money is important in these premier handicaps. We've done very well in this type of race over the years and even to get placed in them is like winning an average race. These better quality horses that we have now were bought to target these valuable handicaps and they have a good chance of paying for themselves and their training fees if they win one.” The McGuinness yard has been operating successfully in the middle tier of Irish training establishments for the last 15 years– 21 winners in 2006 was a previous highlight–and while there have been a few lean years since, the last two seasons suggest the team is on the cusp of greater things. While Thorne is quick to deflect his contribution since coming on board this time two years ago by assuring that McGuinness is still very much the boss, the alliance is definitely proving successful.

“It's a massive team effort, but from riding out, to motivating the lads to continue to do their best, to going racing and attracting owners, I'd like to think that I have become an integral part of the operation since I came back,” Thorne said. After graduating from Godolphin Flying Start in 2014, Thorne set about furthering his training apprenticeship with one-year stints with Mike De Kock in South Africa and Ralph Beckett in England.

“Training was always in the back of my mind during the Flying Start and I was very keen to utilize the course to build contacts within the industry. I learned plenty during my time with Mike De Kock and Ralph Beckett. They both adopt quite a tough training regime with their horses and doing so seems to allow their horses to take their racing better. I am a believer in that system and with the beach here nearby we can add that into the regime, which helps with recuperation and minor aches and pains. They would go in shoulder high a few times a week during the summer and it seems to help keep their minds fresh too,” he added.

Reflecting further on his time in England and South Africa, Thorne continued, “Ralph is a master with fillies. He has a simple enough routine but it works. He has beautiful grass gallops and he just knows when to work horses and when to back off. My time in De Kock's was different but no less impressive. He had 350 horses on the books when I was there, spread over different satellite yards so there was a lot going on. He has scaled it back quite a bit since but I got on well with him and have a lot of respect for him.”

Thorne's own leadership and motivational skills were also highlighted and rewarded when he was the recipient of the 'Lead By Example' award at the Godolphin Stud and Stable Staff Awards in May. One of his first objectives when joining forces with McGuinness was recruiting more horses and owners and from that objective Shamrock Thoroughbreds was born. The ownership syndicate has grown legs since its inception and among others, was represented by Georgian Bay (Ire) (Oratorio {Ire}), a £10,000 purchase during the summer, who was rewarded for a string of placed efforts when getting off the mark for the team at Dundalk last week. “Shamrock Thoroughbreds started out as a small syndicate of family and friends and a few local farmers but it has increased to 30 members now over three horses. There are 10 members in each syndicate and each member owns 10% of their horse and each horse runs for a 12-month contract,” Thorne explained.

While 2018 has been a successful year for team McGuinness, like the majority of Irish trainers, similar success in 2019 is far from a given and expectations remain tempered in advance of a new year. “We've had and will continue to have plenty of low- grade horses and they're the bread and butter and provide winners but they don't put a massive amount of money in your pocket,” McGuinness said. “To survive here in racing you've got to be either winning big races or selling horses on, whether to America or Hong Kong or wherever. We've sold three or four to America the last few years and financially it's been good to us but they've also gone on and been successful for their new connections,” he added. Two recognizable ex-McGuinness runners stateside are the fillies Roca Rojo (Ire) (Strategic Prince {GB}) and Beau Recall (Ire) (Sir Prancealot {Ire}). They are Grade II winners for Chad Brown and Simon Callaghan, respectively, and both were second in Grade I races at Del Mar in 2017, having won their maidens in Ireland. “The American market is important to us, we don't have a Hong Kong type of horse as we can only really afford to buy fillies at the yearling sales. It's very difficult to compete at the yearling sales. We've been successful with a few cheap yearlings that we bought but there is only so far those type of horses will bring you. You'd love to be able to get your hands on four or five nice, well-bred youngsters that you could go and compete against the bigger yards with.”

McGuinness's handling of this year's three-time winning 2-year-old Beau Warrior (Ire) (Declaration Of War) is a prime example of what he can do with the right material.

Getting hold of the right raw material is one of the reasons McGuinness and Thorne have focused on the horses in training sales as a means to upgrading the quality of horse in the yard. Take the ex-Godolphin owned Saltonstall, for example: a €44,000 recruit at Goffs in November. The gelding is rated 100 and went off a short price for this year's Royal Hunt Cup and despite disappointing on his last few starts for Michael Halford it is hoped a different training regime will reignite him and see him fulfill that rating for his new owner, Manchester-based Bart O'Sullivan, who is also the new sponsor of the McGuinness yard.

“At the moment any new owners we get in we tend to sway them towards a horse with form, something ready-made that they can get a bit of fun out of and has the potential to cover its costs and training fees,” McGuinness explained. “Hopefully then if they have a good experience with the ready-made horse they could go in again with a yearling. We find the ready-made horse is a good introduction to racehorse ownership for the majority of clients.”

Ado McGuinness calls it as it is and is one of any number of highly capable horsemen in Ireland who are well adept at getting the best out of their horses, regardless of their ability level. The introduction of the all-weather track at Dundalk a decade ago was a lifeline for his training business, as it allowed him to operate 12 months of the year, a fairly critical criterion for most enterprises. Similar to many of his peers he also sees room for a second all-weather facility, especially with the curtailment of flat racing at a number of Irish venues in recent years. “We've lost flat racing at a number of the country tracks with several others scaling back so I definitely think we could do with another all-weather track,” he said. “However I do I think it has to be built around Dublin and I'm not just saying that because it would be handy for me. To generate an atmosphere and to have a population to go racing it needs to be near a big city. Ideally it would need proper public transport links to allow people to get there easily. You see in England the likes of Sandown, Ascot and Newbury, they all have a train station within walking distance and people from London can travel there easily. There is no reason we couldn't have a similar setup in Ireland and I think the transport links are necessary nowadays to encourage people to go racing.”

With the right mix of youth, experience, ambition and improved horse-power, Ado McGuinness Racing looks primed to build on the progress made in the last two years and heads into 2019 with a lot to look forward to.