Paul Nolan: views on Irish Grand National, Cheltenham and much more

It's a race of such prestige. The prize money is massive as well; it’s the most valuable National Hunt race in Ireland.

It's not quite as famous as the English National perhaps, but it’s not far off and its profile is getting bigger every year.

BOYLE Sports sponsorship is so important. In the last couple of seasons, generally in racing, we have had a little bit of a decline in prize money and that is a shame because expenses for everyone are going up, for owners, for trainers, for everyone involved.

So fair play to Boyles for putting up such a fantastic pot for the Irish national which it deserves to be.

It's a very, very good track. There are no real excuses in it. The best horse normally wins. I think it's even better again since the fences have been made that bit softer. 

It was a very tough course to jump around. The fences were famously solid. It's a good thing all round that the fences are made that bit softer.

It's the full field for a start. It's important for horses to get their position at the start. We know  the starts have become a big topic of conversation.

With those big fields, it is not easy on the jockeys. So many of the field are told to be in the first line. But not everyone can be!

It's not like they're in running lanes like athletes. It's not as simple as that. But the start is very important.

There are times too when horses have to parade and they do get a bit hyper, while some horses are quiet because of the crowds and the music and the noise and all.

Different horses can get wired up and possibly lose the race in the parade before they go on to the track.

I don't think so. If you've got heavy ground and they're moving the stalls from different parts of the track that isn’t good. Maybe they can drop them down from a helicopter! No, it’s not feasible.

But surely something can be done to sort out the mess at some starts so we don’t have to go through the farcical situations that we've seen in Cheltenham for the last couple of seasons.

It can happen at any track, and it can happen anytime and it can be the jockey that’s wrong or the starter.

But they're surely going to have to do something about it.

It's impossible to keep horses still in a line by the tape.

Horses are trained and taught to be afraid of an electric fence and that's what a tape looks like to them.

So, how in the name of God, whoever came up with the idea to have a standing start where every horse's nose is virtually an inch away from the tape, whatever man thought of that idea is definitely not from a farming or breeding background.

We've been fourth a couple of times, including with Latest Exhibition who was favourite and been beaten seven or eight lengths.,

The first race I’d properly remember was in 1984 when Bentom Boy won ridden by Ann Ferris. She was the first female rider to win the race.

My family wouldn't have been from a horsey background at all. But I used to fake illness to skive off school to watch Cheltenham.

I’d pretend to be sick every time the Festival was on!

We had 11 runners in Cheltenham, our biggest contingent. It was double whatever it had been before. They ran well, we were third and we were fourth and we lost poor old HMS Seahorse who fell at the last in the Handicap Hurdle. He would have definitely been in the winners’ enclosure. That was awfully unfortunate and very sad.

Feet Of A Dancer ran her race and was third in the Mares’ Hurdle. She is a very consistent mare. Maybe three miles on that sort of ground wasn’t to her strength. Two and a half on heavier ground or softer ground would be her best.

I'm hoping with Punchestown coming up, we'll probably enter her in the Mares’ race. But she'd find it very difficult. She's not going to beat Wodhooh, and she probably won't beat Jade De Grugy. But we'll definitely enter her in the Mares’ and see what happens. And we'll probably enter in the Stayers’ as well.

We're just very grateful to have the owners that we've had in that time.

We would have had an awful lot of horses with syndicates from the construction industry. But with the financial crash that was like a tap being turned off as so many businesses went under. An awful lot of fellas had horses for the first time and they went.

An awful lot of people went through tough times then. We were just lucky enough to have the owners to pull us out of it.

We are pretty much a family affair here and we're just delighted to be able to keep the flag flying with as many winners as we can every year and hopefully trying to attract more owners to have because it's all a numbers game. You have to have the numbers to compete.

The changes have been massive. The expense of the staff, the book work and everything involved with the horses now, the medicine side of it have gone to a very high level.

The outlook with farming here was not great. We had a lot of sheep here and I could never see myself getting the decent wage out of it, as well as my father and mother and trying to keep everything like that. I couldn't see much light at the end of the tunnel.

I had to think of doing something else. I chose horses and thankfully it turned out lucky, and thankfully we're still at it.

We’ve had 18 winners this season and two at Doncaster in January with Feet of a Dancer and Thedeviluno ridden by Sean O’Keeffe. That was a memorable day.

We aim to try and finish in the top 10 every year. We're probably going to struggle this year now, bringing the 11 horses to Cheltenham, and with the horses going to Doncaster. That's going to put finishing in the top 10 under pressure. You're always trying to hope to God that you can get in more horses. You're always striving to get more numbers in.

It’s not easy but good luck to them. You can't penalise success. Willie [Mullins] started off the same as anyone. Gordon [Elliott] started off with nothing, his father had a garage up in County Meath and Gordon built up his own place. 

Henry [De Bromhead] inherited the place from his father, but he’s taken it to a different level. We all start off with the same chance and it's up to yourself to and try and better yourself every year. I’d never point a finger or say, ‘Poor me.’

You just try and up your game and try and get up there with them.

I wouldn’t change it for anything. You always hope for the future to try and look after what we have and try and better ourselves and better the yard and better the facilities. And just hope to God that the racing continues and we try to overcome the people that don't want the sport to continue.

We all have to stay together and work as a unit going forward to protect racing.

We shouldn’t even have to discuss protecting such a brilliant sport. The animals are treated brilliantly. I think it's terrible that people are speaking out against our sport.

Would these people want to be educated about it? Everyone deserves to have an opinion, but there's certain opinions people have that you couldn't take on board because they just don't make any sense.

I couldn't even think of what would happen without the sport or without the community. If we start doing things like that, where will it all end? Will there be any rugby or hurling or football or will there be any contact sport? Where will it end?

In our industry, everybody should be there to help us go forward collectively. There have to be rules, cheats have to be dealt with and all like that, but moving forward, we should be there to help people, not to inconvenience or make life hard because it's already hard enough.

You have to put him down as one of Ireland's greatest human beings as regards to what he does for everything, for scholarships, for hospitals, for sport in general. They’ll never be another like him.

I'd be very good pals with Gordon Elliott. Gordon wouldn't have had a square foot of ground when he started. He’s built up a fantastic place from starting off with nothing.

Most of us were lucky we were either ex farmers, or we had a bit of land to gallop on. Gordon didn’t.

The success that he's had is phenomenal.

I actually appreciate everyone in the game because I know how tough it is myself. Training is certainly not easy.

Dealing with the lows as the hardest part of it. It’s such a game of highs and lows. There’s not much middle ground.

It's a game where you have to dust yourself off after the lows and staying going.

I think it's ridiculous. I think there's a decent relationship between the jockeys. I don't think it matters where they're from. They're out there to do their best on the horse that they're riding and I don't think that they're too worried about anything else really. They're going off to get the best start and get the best position for their horse.

I don't think it's a matter of bullying. It’s just that some jockeys don't make as many mistakes as others and that separates the top class lads from the next level and the next level.

Nicky Henderson's horse that won the Supreme, Old Park Star. He just looks to be very good. I also thought it was a brilliant performance from Gaelic Warrior in the Gold Cup. When he gets into a rhythm, and jumps like that, he's very hard to beat.

Fact To File would possibly be his main rival as regards to that. I thought that the John Durkan at Christmas was one of the best races I've ever seen. When you think of who fought out first and second in that race and how far they distanced themselves from proper Grade one horses behind them. They totally just took over the race, and it was a ding-dong battle.

I’ve got a good feeling about Colm Murphy’s horse Goraibhmaithagat.