It’s a bit of a strange situation training on your own, it’s boring. The quicker we can get back the better.
After Cheltenham I was a bit rough – at first I thought it was a hangover and then it was more for the next two, three days I was real rough. But, I’ve got over that, I stayed in isolation and that was fine.
Then when I came out of that we were in lockdown. But, we’ve had three weeks at home and it was nice to spend time with the wife and the kids because you’re not always at home with football.
Too much time at home can cause you more problems than what it’s worth though. Last Saturday I must have been part of a long list of men or women. I was at Wickes’s at 6:55am buying garden paint and 12 bags of 120kg compost.
I’m not too sure it will be like the Chelsea Flower Show, probably the Dagenham & Redbridge Flower Show!
A possible return behind closed doors with West Brom
It was going well, we put ourselves in a position where we can get promoted and get to achieve the goal we wanted at the start of the season. Everybody says about fans not being involved and not being there – I totally understand.
Sometimes they can play a great positive for you, but they can also play a negative for you when it’s not going well. If you don’t win your first two games, you could start seeing teams sliding up and down the table.
Look this is the real deal for us, as it’s three points at the end of the day.
I’m fortunate to have horse racing
Horse racing was just something that I’ve always wanted to do and I got fortunate enough, through the job I do, that I could be involved.
I’ve owned a couple of horses, a couple of nice ones and I’ve just got one nice two-year-old [Theotherside] at Richard Hannon’s, that won first time out for me, that’s going to be good this year as a three-year-old.
We did enter her in the 1,000 Guineas just to have a look before the lockdown. But, we will steer away from that now as she’ll need a little bit more time.
Excel Racing
It’s more about getting people involved – they’re going to the racing now for the craic.
Everyone likes going to the racing and having a pint and all that stuff. So when I used to go, have a pint, have a bet, I always used to think I’d love to be able to go in the middle of the ring as an owner. My mate and just thought ‘right let’s set up a syndicate and try to attract other like-minded people that want a similar thing and do the same’.
If you train the fun out of it then you’re in all sorts of trouble.
Everyone wants to own a top-quality flat horse and a top-quality national hunt horse, but it’s not always going to happen. It’s very rare – all right you get top owners and lucky owners as such that get these top horses but ultimately the lower grade races, that’s where you could say it’s similar to the grass roots football.
Without them unfortunately you’re just on a slippery slope.
Success as an owner with Another Batt
He came over from Ireland, John Nicholson had him. I brought him over and I actually thought I’d bought a pony at first – he was that skinny and I thought what have I done.
Anyway, he went on to be great for me – he took me over to Turkey, we won a big race over there.
I took Another Batt over there and he won a two-year-old race which would probably be a similar to a class 3, class 2 and it was €115,000 to the winner – it was a no brainer. He went over there and won.
That €100,000 is covering training bills and all sorts. He went over to Dubai, won over there to.
He was a fantastic servant for me, but again everything comes to a certain time. I had him for three years and then moved him on then.
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