Under The Radar: Uhavemeinstitches revives sweet memories for Motherway

James Motherway was hopeful going to Limerick on Sunday.  He knew that his mare Uhavemeinstitches was in good form going there, and the race had cut up a bit, the Grade Three Hugh McMahon Memorial Novice Chase.  Just four runners, and they sent his mare off as the odds-on favourite.

“Going through the race beforehand, there wasn’t an obvious pace-setter," Motherways says. "You Oughta Know had led before, but not recently.  We knew that we might have to take it up at some stage.”

He watched with his wife Vicky and his 15-month old son Sam as Mark Walsh settled Uhavemeinstitches in second place, just behind a moderate pace that Paul Townend was setting on You Oughta Know. 

The rider waited in behind until he could wait no longer.  Over the final fence in the back straight first time, he allowed his mare move up on the inside and join the leader.  By the time they got to the bend, she was in front.

Her trainer was happy enough.  That was the plan.  JP McManus’ mare is a long striding mare who jumps well.  Allow her bowl along, use her stride, use her jumping.

She led until they went around again and turned for home, for real this time, still stalked by You Oughta Know.

“I could see what Paul Townend was doing,” says Motherway. “The top-class rider that he is.  I said it to Vicky.  Stalking in behind and lining up to have one go at us.”

You Oughta Know closed to within a half a length on the run-in, but he got no closer.  It looked like Uhavemeinstitches pulled out a little bit more when he got close, and she was always containing the challenge.  When she hit the line, she still had a half a length in hand, and probably value for a little bit more.

“It was great that she got her head in front again,” says her trainer.  “She has been running well all season, and she was unlucky to get hampered and unseat early in the Leinster National on her previous run.  It was great that JP and Noreen were at Limerick too on Sunday.  That made it extra special.  It was a lovely race to win.”

His links with that race, the Hugh McMahon Memorial Novice Chase, go way back.

It was in 2009 that he won the race with Bluesea Cracker.  A year later to the day, Bluesea Cracker won the Irish Grand National.

Just over 11 years later, the mare gave birth to a bay filly foal, by Walk In The Park, and that filly would be named Uhavemeinstitches and would go back to Limerick to win the Hugh McMahon Memorial Novice Chase, 17 years after her dam had won it.

Synergies all over the place.

“That was obviously a brilliant day,” says Motherway. “The day that Bluesea won the Irish National.  I was only training a couple of years, so to get a mare like that, to win a race like that, the Irish National, so early in my career.  Things like that don’t happen.”

Bluesea Cracker was sent off at 25-1, and bigger than that in the lead up to the race, but her trainer is sure that she should never have been available at such a big price.

“She finished second to Ballytrim in the Leinster National on her previous run, beaten a half a length, and Ballytrim was a much shorter price.

"Davy Condon had ridden her in the Leinster National, but he was suspended for the Irish National, so we got Andy McNamara, and he gave her a super ride too.  I remember, I was watching it from down at the bottom of the track on the big screen and, when she won, I leapt about three foot into the air!”

Bluesea Cracker was bought by JP McManus before she ran in the Grand National at Aintree the following season, and Noreen McManus bred Uhavemeinstitches but, after the filly foal was born, they sent the mare and the foal back to  Motherway.

“It was lovely to get the mare back,” he says.  “It was so good of JP and Noreen to send her back to me.  We had the foal, we looked after her until she was weaned, then she went to Enda Bolger’s.  She did a lot of her early schooling with Enda and then she came back to us.”

Bolger sent him a video of her schooling, and she looked great.

“I remember the first time I sat on her when she came back to us from Enda’s, I thought she could be all right.  She just gave you that feel.  And her action, her attitude, it was all good.  And the more we did with her, the better she got.”

She could be an Irish National horse at some stage.  She obviously has the right profile for the race.  The race might come up a little quickly now this year, after her win on Sunday.  She has come out of the race really well though, so they will see how she is over the next couple of days.

“I’ll have a chat with Frank (Berry, JP McManus’ racing manager), and we will make a decision,” says the trainer.  “If ever you’d be unsure about something, you can always call Frank.  JP is a great owner for us to have, a very loyal owner.  The most important thing is to do the right thing by the horse.  She’s still only six.  She has lots of time.”

Motherway and the Irish National go way back.  His grandfather Jimmy, James as well, led up the winner of the race, Shaun Peel, for Charlie Creed in 1939.  So for him to go and win the race himself with Bluesea Cracker in 2009, 70 years later, was extra special.

Motherway himself was brought up with ponies and hurling and hunting and show jumping.  Horses and hurling and hounds, he says.  Caught the bug early.  

His dad had a restricted licence, and Motherway qualified as a riding instructor before making his way as an amateur rider.  He spent time with Liam Burke and Enda Bolger and Kim Bailey, he was at Kim Bailey’s when Alderbrook and Master Oats were there.  He rode 21 point-to-point winners and he rode Lisnagar Lake to win a hunters’ chase at Tramore in March 1998.  

He had his first runners as a trainer in March 2003.  He sent out Hickory Hill to win a bumper at Cork in August 2004, and he kicked on.  As well as winning the Hugh McMahon Chase and the Irish National with Bluesea Cracker, he won the Midlands National in 2019 with Na Trachtalai Abu for Robcour and he won the Cailin Alainn Hurdle in 2022 with Rebel Ivy.

“We just have a small team of horses,” he says.  “We have a couple of pre-trainers for Robcour and we have a couple of stores as well.  We have a half-brother to Uhavemeinstitches by Wings Of Eagles who will probably have his first run in a point-to-point in a few weeks.  He’s a slow burner but he’s going well.  And we have a half-sister to her by Old Persian, a three-year-old filly who is nice and who will go to the store sales.”

He built a new gallop a couple of years ago.

“My stepdaughter Abbie Murphy rides Uhavemeinstitches out all the time.  She’s a 7lb claimer, she’s making her way, and she can ride all right.  Stitches is her pet!  Katie Sloane does a great job with them too, she usually gets the best-turned-out award.  We’re a small team, but we’ll keep tipping away.”

His action, his attitude.  All good.