Under The Radar: Thomas Coyle

Thomas Coyle had four runners last week: one of them won and the other three finished second.  It’s a small sample size of course, but it’s a small yard, and it’s difficult to argue that the horses are not in form.

Two of the four were in the same race too, the seven-and-a-half-furlong handicap at Roscommon last Monday.  Competitive handicap, 14 runners, you couldn’t go there thinking that they’d finished first and second.

“I can’t remember having the 1-2 in any race before,” says the trainer now.  “It wouldn't be very often that we’d even have two runners in a race!”

He was hopeful going to Roscommon though.  He knew that Selective Power was well and, even though Manhattan Dandy was a much bigger price, he hoped that he would go well too.

“I would have been disappointed if Selective Power hadn’t finished in the first three,” he says. “He always takes two or three runs.  He’s an active horse at home, but it still takes him a couple of runs.  He had done a nice piece of work beforehand and, when I saw the rain coming, I thought that he would have a big chance.”

Manhattan Dandy went into the race in good form too.  The Little Acorns Syndicate’s horse hadn’t run since he ran at Listowel in early June and, while his trainer thought that he would come on for the run, he expected him to go well too at a track that seems to suit him well.

“James (Ryan) had to get after Selective Power a bit on the run to the home turn,” says Thomas, “and I was starting to get a little worried.  But he picked up well in the home straight and he stayed on strongly.  James was very good on him, and he was impressive.”

Manhattan Dandy stuck to his task well too to get up and take second place behind his stable companion.

“It was a great result for us obviously.  I was delighted for the owners too.  They’d all know each other, they’d often meet each other in the yard, and they’d all be rooting for each other.  The syndicate that owns Selective Power is my dad’s syndicate, and they’d always be rooting for Manhattan Dandy too, and vice versa.  So they were all in good form afterwards!”

They were looking for a horse for the Urban and Rural Boys Syndicate for a little while when Selective Power came up in the Tattarsalls On-Line Sale in March two years ago, a half-brother to Slade Power who had won over seven furlongs for Eddie Lynam.

“He’s a bit of a character,” says Thomas.  “It could take three or four goes to get the saddle on him at the races.  But he’s got ability all right, and we’re moving into his time of year now.”

Around this time last year, the Tamayuz gelding finished second in a handicap at Bellewstown before going to Galway and finishing a close-up third behind Sirjack Thomas off a mark of 57.  He goes for that same Galway race on Tuesday and, set to race off a mark of 71, he goes there with a real chance again.

“I thought that the handicapper was harsh enough on him,” says his trainer.  “He dropped into the 0-60 grade at Roscommon for the first time in a while, and that makes a difference.  He got a 12lb hike for his win there, but he’s in great form, so he’ll take his chance.  There’s a little bit of rain forecast, and, if he gets it, we’d be very hopeful again.”

He had two more runners later last week.  Tomahawk King stayed on well to finish second in a handicap at Down Royal on Friday, failing by just a neck to catch Maxwell Smart and finishing a clear second.  Then on Saturday, Lunar Landscape finished second in a 10-furlong handicap at Navan, just run down close home after hitting the front at the furlong marker.

“They both ran really well,” says Thomas.  “Tomahawk King has been throwing it away at the start, but Chris Hayes rode him for the first time at Roscommon last month, and he said that he’d try something different with him at the start this time, and it worked to. tee.  He wasn’t fast away or anything, but he didn’t give away too much ground, and he ran really well.”

The trainer thought that Lunar Landscape would go close too at Navan on Saturday.

“He had been working really well in the lead up to the race, so we were very hopeful.  In the end, we just bumped into one, but we were delighted with how he ran.  I can’t wait to go jumping with him now.  There’s a nice 0-70 handicap for him at The Curragh next, and he could go jumping after that.”

Thomas Coyle started off jumping.  From Batterstown in County Meath, he was always interested in horses, and he started going into Eddie Cawley when he was a youngster.  He rode eight point-to-point winners, all for Eddie Cawley, before he started to concentrate more on the training side.

“Eddie is only down the road here, not even five minutes away, and he was brilliant to me from the start.  I never went anywhere else really, all my point-to-point winners were for Eddie.  I didn’t manage to ride a winner on the track, I went close in some of those big bumpers at the festivals, I had seconds and thirds, but it was all great experience.”

He had a few horses at home himself, he got a few more when Covid arrived and things got quiet at Eddie’s, and he decided that he needed to concentrate more on his own horses.  His first runner was Dunroe Boy, who ran in a handicap hurdle at Kilbeggan in June 2015, and won.

“I did the trainers course with Emmet Mullins and the Turf Club were very good. I had a horse ready to run within about a week of finishing the course and they got it sorted so that I could run him.

"That was obviously before Covid, but I only had a few horses then.  It’s only since Covid that I’ve concentrated fully on the horses here.  Eddie has been great to me, as has John McConnell, for whom I do a bit of pre-training.  It’s all about having the horses though and keeping them healthy and well."

He’s going along very nicely.  He has his own sand gallop, and the Skryne Gallops are only just down the road.  He has a small team of horses, but they are in tremendous form at present, and he has plenty to look forward to for the season ahead.

She won well at Sligo early last month on her second run for us, and she could go in a mares’ handicap hurdle at Sligo on Friday.  She’s in good form and, if all goes well, she could go chasing sooner rather than later.

He ran well to finish second in a 10-furlong handicap at Navan on Saturday.  He’s in good form and we’re looking forward now to going jumping with him.

He has been a little bit disappointing of late, but he just hasn’t had his ground.  He has been dropped to a mark of 56, which means he can run in 0-60 races and, if he gets some soft ground now, he could go well in one of them.