By Alayna Cullen and Emma Berry
The start of the Irish Flat turf season is now only a matter of weeks away and one man who will be itching to make an impression this year is John O'Donoghue, the new trainer at one of Ireland's most revered stables, Currabeg.
Training at the yard from which John Oxx sent out so many top horses, not least Sea The Stars (Ire), Sinndar (Ire) and Ridgewood Pearl (GB), could bring with it a degree of pressure, but Oxx's successor prefers to view it as a privilege.
“I had spent a little bit of time here when I was a teenager, and always stayed in touch with Mr and Mrs. Oxx,” says O'Donoghue, who recently returned to Ireland with his wife Jodi following a six-year stint in England working for David O'Meara and Roger Varian.
“When he announced his retirement, we were sort of looking at starting ourselves, and it was never something that we considered, that we'd be able to start here. I'd say it was luck really: what's for you doesn't pass you, and it all just worked out.”
He adds, “One of the biggest positives was the Curragh, and the fact that there was this yard available and with all the redevelopment, the grandstand and the training grounds. It was just the perfect place to launch.”
It is also a homecoming for the Cork native O'Donoghue and his Irish wife. The couple were married last year while living in Newmarket, where Jodi was employed by Jockey Club Racecourses as a partnerships key account manager.
Though John's name is on the training licence, the business of O'Donoghue Racing is a partnership in every sense of the word. Modern-day racing requires more than just horsemanship and staff management, and with the rise of syndicate ownership, Jodi's expertise in this field will doubtless prove useful to the new trainer.
“Jodi is probably the brains of the operation really,” acknowledges her husband. “I look after the horses and run the yard and train them as I see them. Jodi would be instrumental really in getting the owners in and the owner experience, the admin of the yard, pushing different streams of ownership.”
He continues, “We're bringing her corporate experience into what we're trying to do here. I think when everything settles down, and we sort of hit the ground, we're going to offer a very high-end service. It's something we've been thinking about for a long time and strategising.”
Jodi's experience in the horse world–from show jumpers to racehorses–has been varied. She completed stints with Camas Park Stud and Aga Khan Studs before working for Newmarket Racecourses, and she has previously run syndicates for David O'Meara, Tom Clover and Ken Condon. So far the new working partnership is not testing the personal one.
“Our roles are quite separate,” she says. “We both come at it from different angles. I see it from one angle. He sees it from the horse angle. I think from my business background and his extensive experience working with horses over the years, I think it kind of marries off well.
“So far, so good,” Jodi continues, before adding with a laugh, “Come back to me in a year.”
The equine team currently consists of 20 juveniles and “a handful” of older horses. From their base at Currabeg, the racecourse is within hollering distance but the training grounds, accessed via a short walk and trot from the stable, past the odd sheep here and there, are altogether quieter than those O'Donoghue was used to in Newmarket during his time with Roger Varian.
“We're incredibly lucky where we are,” he says. “Currabeg is just off the plain to the Little Curragh facility. So in our daily routine we don't actually pass another string. We start to see Ken Condon or Willie McCreery in the distance, and maybe have to take one turn at the bottom. We walk out, we walk back in. We keep everything very close to home and relaxed. Basically, it's a very different training centre, even though it's essentially the same concept.”
The stable was represented by its first runner in the first week of 2022, when Ertikaaz (Ire) (Cable Bay {Ire}) made his debut for O'Donoghue, who had previous experience of the former Varian-trained 4-year-old picked up at the sales last year. With the bulk of the yard being juveniles, the trainer will be taking a patient approach, even though the season will burst back into life almost on his doorstep on March 26.
“It's going to be the 2-year-old races and summer racing that we're really going to target. But, yeah, we're looking forward to it all starting,” says O'Donoghue.
“We've got everything we want, everything we need, so let's get some winners.”
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