Under The Radar: Miss Dishy an attractive proposition for Murphy

Ciaran Murphy stood opposite the winning line and looked down Dundalk’s home straight.  About two and a half furlongs away from him, he could see the six horses wheel around the home turn and straighten up to gallop towards him. 

Visibility wasn’t great, but he could see Walhaan all right.  You couldn't miss him as he gets more white and less grey with every year that passes.  And he was widest of all, furthest to the left as his trainer looked down the straight, Ben Coen just getting into the drive position on his back. 

He lost sight of his horse for a stride or two as the dark form of Psalm moved across in front of him.  But he could still see the outline of Ben Coen’s body, the green and white chevrons of the Ask Dot Syndicate colours as he moved to Murphy’s right in between horses and picked up.  

 It’s not easy to tell as they race towards you, who is in front and who is behind and where they are in relation to the furlong markers.  His horse was behind when they had left the furlong marker behind them, but it looked like he was gaining again on the leader.  The closer they got to the trainer, the more his horse was closing on Psalm, the narrower the gap between the two horses was becoming and the more they were coming away from the other horses.  

He leaned in as they closed on the line.  He was sure that his horse was in front deep inside the final 150 yards.  Psalm’s head dipped as they hit the line, and that gave him a chance, but Murphy thought that Walhaan was up all right.  Then came the announcement: first, number two.  Exhale. 

“We were hopeful enough going to Dundalk,” says the trainer, reflecting on that contest run on October 18.  “Things didn’t go Walhaan’s way in Killarney [11 days earlier], it was a tactical race and it didn’t suit him.  But we knew that he was in great form going to Dundalk, and we know that surface suits him.” 

 That was Walhaan’s third run at Dundalk this year, and it was his second win. 

“The lads (owners) are dual purpose, they’ll want to be going back over hurdles now,” he said. “And the form that Walhaan is in now, the way he has improved in the last little while, we have lots of options.  There’s a mile race back at Dundalk in the next couple of weeks, so we might have a look at that.” 

Two days after the victory of Walhaan – his only runner on that day –Murphy had two runners, Miss Dishy in a mares’ maiden hurdle at Limerick and Titanium in a mile handicap at Leopardstown.  He could only go to one of the venues.  He had to decide.  He went to Leopardstown. 

“Colin Keane rode Titanium on his previous run at Tipperary over nine furlongs,” says Murphy, “and he said that he just took a blow.  He suggested that we drop him back down to a mile and take our time with him, so that’s what we said that we would do.” 

Last of the eight runners early on in Sunday’s race and still only seventh as they started around Leopardstown’s home turn, Titanium picked up well for Wayne Hassett, he went through the gap that developed along the inside rail and kept on well to win nicely. 

“He is not short of pace,” says the trainer. “If you look at the sectionals of Sunday’s race, he was fastest of all through the third last furlong and through the second last furlong.  Wayne was very good on him too.  We could go for a premier handicap with him, now that we have him rocking and rolling.” 

He was able to watch Titanium’s race safe in the knowledge that, an hour and a half earlier, Miss Dishy had run out a comfortable winner of that mares’ maiden hurdle at Limerick under Eoin Walsh.  That was three winners for Murphy from three runners in three days. 

“We were very pleased with Miss Dishy at home,” he says.  “We knew that she had improved since Roscommon.  Her jumping was slick and she won nicely.  She’s in the Grade Three mares’ novice hurdle at Down Royal, or she might go for a mares’ novice hurdle at Newbury.  She could be a filly who could go to the spring festivals here.  She’s a nice prospect.” 

Murphy was just a teenager when the Irish-based top-class Danish event rider Dot Love spotted him and his twin brother Joseph out hunting, and recognised immediately that the lads could ride.  Joseph went down the eventing route, with huge success.  He has represented Ireland at the Olympic Games and at European Championships and at Nations Cups.  

Ciaran was bitten by the racing bug from early thought and, after succumbing to his parents’ wishes and training and working as a carpenter for just over four years, he returned to racing.  He gained valuable experience riding and working with other trainers before returning to Dot Love at Charlestown, where he worked as assistant trainer until 2020. 

While Love proved time and again that she was able to train racehorses – she sent out Liberty Counsel to win the Irish Grand National in 2013 – a big part of the business was the pre-training of horses, and the young Gigginstown House Stud horses made up a significant proportion of their pre-trainers.  So when Gigginstown decided to scale back their involvement in National Hunt racing, they had to have a re-think. 

It was always the intention that Murphy would take over the trainer’s licence at some point, and that happened in 2020.  So, instead of working as Love’s assistant trainer, Murphy took over as trainer, with Love as assistant trainer. 

“The time was right for me to take over the licence,” he says.  “And Dot is brilliant.  She has so much experience, she was a brilliant event rider, she rode at Burghley, she rode at Badminton, she represented Denmark.  She knows so much about horses.” 

Murphy has already had plenty of success with his National Hunt horses from early in his nascent training career.  Enjoy D’Allen won his first two races for him, then finished third in the 2021 Irish Grand National.  Bridge Native won a good handicap chase at Galway.  Jack Hackett won a good handicap chase at Kilbeggan.  

But he has also established himself on the Flat in the past few years.  Titanium and Walhaan are the flagbearers now, but Mile End, Finsceal Annie and Granville Street have all made their marks.  He trained Bottler’secret to win a maiden and a three-year-olds’ handicap before the Dragon Pulse gelding joined Gavin Cromwell and morphed into a Grade two-winning hurdler, with the promise of more to come. 

“We’re about half and half,” says Murphy, “and it works well.  We are lucky to have a lot of local owner/breeders who are very supportive of us.  We have great staff and we have some nice young horses to get getting on with, Flat and National Hunt.  We have lots to be looking forward to.”