Under The Radar: Cuban Grey caps McKenna celebrations

Pat McKenna wasn’t at The Curragh on Sunday.  He was at his nephew’s wedding in Italy, in Tuscany, but he was watching from there all right.

Actually, they were all watching from there.  The timing was good.  Everybody at the wedding was tuned into the All-Ireland Hurling Final between Tipperary and Cork, and Cuban Grey’s race was at half-time in the match.  They cheered when Cuban Grey won as if Tyrone had just won the All-Ireland Final.

“We knew that we had him in good form going there all right,” says McKenna now, reflecting on the day.  “We were obviously delighted when he won.  He’s a wee star.  And Rory (Mulligan) gave him a lovely ride.  He’s a great lad, a lovely fellow.  Cuban Grey has been a great horse for us.  He loves The Curragh.  He ran well in the Rockingham there on Derby weekend when he didn’t have a great trip down.”

The trip down went something like this: leave Dungannon in good time, Armagh, Newry, Dundalk and onto the M1 that will bring you down around Dublin on the M50 then onto the M7 and onto The Curragh.  You’d do it in less than three hours on a day on which all goes well, but that day was not one of those days.  The horsebox broke down at the toll bridge just outside Drogheda.

“That was the day that Armagh were playing Kerry in the All-Ireland quarter final,” says McKenna.  “And all the Armagh boys were going past, beeping and cheering.  Just having the craic.  But that wasn’t ideal for the horse, he got a bit worked up.  In the end, he ran a great race in the circumstances to finish fifth.”

It’s not a coincidence that GAA is a theme.  Pat and Sheila McKenna’s son Conor was a key member of the Tyrone team that won the All-Ireland football championship in 2021.  Now playing Australian Rules football, when he won the AFL Premiership with the Brisbane Lions in 2024, he became only the second person ever to win an All-Ireland and an AFL Premiership.

“That was all down to Sheila,” says McKenna.  “Wherever the lads needed to go, Sheila drove them.  Training, matches, it didn’t matter.  Trials.  Sheila always took them.”

Just because he is on the other side of the world, mind you, it doesn't mean that Conor isn’t hugely involved in the horses.

“Conor and Emmet have always been involved,” says McKenna.  “Emmet has a great knowledge of horses, and Conor was up at three o’clock in the morning in Australia to watch the race on Sunday.  It was Conor who actually spotted Cuban Grey in the sale.”

That was the Tattersalls Online Sale in January 2024, and a bid of 5,000 guineas from McKenna Racing was enough to secure the Havana Grey gelding. 

Back then, Cuban Grey was an exposed-looking 60-rated horse who had run 25 times and won just twice.  Pat got him going and got him racing, and he won a five-furlong handicap at Tipperary the following May off a mark of 54.

“We don’t do that much with them here,” says the trainer.  “But he was just a little bit weak when we got him, and sprinters came sometimes improve like that.”

Cuban Grey finished second behind Keke in a handicap at Down Royal the following month, beaten a neck.  Keke is now rated 100.  The following month, Cuban Grey went back to Tipperary for another five-furlong handicap, but he got worked up in the stalls and had to be withdrawn.

“He picked up an injury in the stalls at Tipperary,” says McKenna, “so we had to give him some time off.  He has been in great form since then though.”

This season, Cuban Grey has won three times and finished second twice.  He has risen from a handicap rating of 59 to the rating of 81 that he was awarded by the handicapper this week, 7lb higher than the mark off which he won on Sunday. 

“We have him in at Cork on Friday, and he could go there.  He came out of Sunday’s race bouncing, so he could take his chance.  But we might wait instead for The Curragh next month.  He loves The Curragh.  He seems to go particularly well there.”

The €12,390 that the Havana Grey gelding picked up in prize money for winning Sunday’s race brought his total prize money won for Pat McKenna to more than €50,000, which isn’t bad for a horse who cost 5,000 guineas.  He may not be finished yet either.  There may be some leeway in him yet, even off his new mark of 81.

McKenna is looking forward to running him next.  He is also looking forward to the All-Ireland football final on Sunday, in which Donegal will take on Kerry.

“It has been a great season in football,” he says.  “The new rules have made a big difference.  It should be a great final too.  It’s a tough one to call, but we’ll be shouting for Donegal, the Ulster county.”