Under The Radar: Brendan Walsh enjoying sharing his successes

Brendan Walsh was happy enough going into the festivals of racing after Christmas.  The horses were in good form at home, and he was going to Limerick and Tramore with chances.

His first runner of the week, Snow Punt, was a 20/1 shot for the two-mile handicap hurdle on the second day of the Limerick Christmas Festival, but his trainer thought he would run better than a 20/1 shot should run. He did.  He jumped to the front over the second last flight, and was just run down close home by Apologise.

“I liked the way that he battled,” says Brendan now, reflecting on the run.  “He just ran into one.  He wasn’t an unlucky loser or anything, he ran well, he was just beaten by a better horse on the day.  We’ll look for something for him next month.  He could be doing with a bit of rain too.  He wouldn't want that tacky ground.  He’s from a good staying family, and he should make a nice chaser in time.”

He went back to Limerick two days later with Knockbrack Rambler for the two-mile-three-furlong handicap hurdle, the last race on the day.  Again, Brendan Walsh travelled in hope and, again, as with Snow Punt, rider Cal Shine got his horse settled nicely through the early part of the race.  

The trainer watched as his horse moved up on the outside of the leaders on the run around the home turn, travelling better than the two horses on his inside.  The Leading Light gelding hit the front on the run to the second last flight and, while he didn’t clear away to win by daylight, he was always holding his rivals, and he kept on nicely to get home by a length.

“To be honest, we would have been a bit disappointed if we had got beaten,” says the trainer now.  “He ran really well at Clonmel on his first run since the summer, when he made a few mistakes, and we thought that he had come on from that.”

No mistake this time.

“And Cal gave him a great ride.  He gets on really well with him.  He’s a great help to us.  He’s in here in the morning at 6.30am.  If I asked him to be in at 3.30am, he’d be here.  He’s a qualified accountant, but he’s a really good rider, a good horseman.”

Cal Shine would have ridden Rochestown too in the two-mile-five-and-a-half-furlong handicap hurdle at Tramore on New Year’s Day had he not been suspended.  As it was, in his absence, Josh Williamson took the ride.

“I still wanted to claim off him,” says Brendan.  “I thought of Josh, I had seen him ride plenty.  He rides well.  He rides like his dad Norman.  And he has a head on his shoulders.  Nothing seems to faze him.”

If he needed another fillip, Josh Williamson got it when he won the maiden hurdle on Machismo for Gordon Elliott 35 minutes before he lined up on Rochestown, and he gave Rochestown a similar ride: settled nicely just behind the pace, second with a circuit to run, joined the front rank on the run out of the back straight, led on the approach to the second last flight, kept on well to win nicely.  Machismo won by 25 lengths, Rochestown won by just six, but it was still decisive.

“I was delighted for Josh, and for the lads at home,” says the trainer.  “And for Rochestown’s owner David O’Meara.  He has been a great supporter of ours for a long time.”

It was in the autumn of 2022 that Brendan took out his own licence to train racehorses, took over from his dad John Joe.

“I suppose I was always going to take over.  I was at it all the time, but sure, when you enjoy doing something, it’s not like work at all.”

There were many big days along the way with his dad.  Like, the day that Lord Singapore won the Troytown Chase at Navan in November 1996, the 3lb claimer David Casey getting him home by just over three lengths from Heist, with the pair of them clear.  

There was the day that Jack Absolute won the Tim Duggan Chase at Limerick’s 2012 Christmas Festival under Brian O’Connell, and the day that Page Turner won the same race, two years later under 7lb claimer Ambrose McCurtin.  And if you look at the video of Page Turner’s win and you think, those colours look familiar, you would be right.  They’re the Rochestown colours.  David O’Meara again.

Ballyegan Hero won the big handicap hurdle at the weekend at the 2017 Galway Festival, and Davids Charm had many big days, in handicap hurdles at Galway and Fairyhouse and Listowel, and on the Flat at Killarney, before he went to Tipperary in October 2019 and won the Grade 3 Horse & Jockey Hotel Hurdle.  

And Function Dream.  She started life with John Joe and Brendan Walsh before she joined Mary Reveley and won a Castleford Chase and a Victor Chandler Chase, and beat Flagship Uberalles in a Game Spirit Chase.  Brendan rode the Strong Gale mare to win her point-to-point at Dromahane, which is, of course, where it all began.

These days, it all begins at home.  It hasn’t been easy during the frosts and the snows that have enveloped the south of Ireland in the last few weeks.  The sand gallop has to be harrowed every couple of hours and, if that means that you have to get up a couple of times in the middle of the night, then you have to get up a couple of times in the middle of the night.

“My wife Rose is great,” says Brendan.  “And our sons.  Darren is here full-time.  Mark is still in school, but he rides out in the morning before he heads off.  They’re a great help.  Things are going nicely.  We have a nice team of horses now, they’re running well, and we have a few nice young horses coming along."

It’s not like work at all.