Change of approach helping Magee rack up the winners

Interview

PAUL FITZPATRICK spoke to Shercock-based horse trainer PADDY MAGEE, who has been clocking up plenty of winners of late.

It’s probably never been as difficult to take on the big boys in the business of training thoroughbred racehorses in Ireland but one Cavanman is making a good fist of it.

Shercock trainer Paddy Magee’s small string has been making waves of late, most recently when Good Deal, backed from an opening price of 80/1, won the bumper at Fairyhouse on New Year’s Day at a meaty 201/ for Magee and owners, the Black Steel Square Syndicate.

Good Deal’s win was a superb start to 2025 for the Glassleck yard, who also have another stable star in Arch Enemy.

“He (Good Deal) had good form last year, he had two good runs and then he had a break. We were hoping he’d be placed, we didn’t think he would win but he was backed each way,” Magee explained to the Anglo-Celt last week.

“Arch Enemy won the Premier Handicap in Leopardstown in October, that was a 35 grand race so that was massive. The same syndicate owns her.”

The latter horse has proven extremely consistent and has led to a slight pivot in Magee’s approach, with more of a focus on flat runners, which has proven successful thus far.

“We bought her to go jumping but then we sort of switched direction and we ran her more on the flat. The prizemoney is better and we find it easier to keep horses sound on the flat so we’ve kind of gone more that direction.

“The horse was bought for €1000, my farrier actually bought her and then we bought her off him. I had actually broken her here so I knew all about her. The lads were looking for a horse to go jumping so we bought her to go jumping but she has won seven races now and over 100 grand prizemoney.

“She had been running on the flat before but just the way it worked out, she had flat form and we ran her on the flat and she started running into places. She has picked up so much prizemoney, most of her prizemoney has been picked up being placed, she’s always there or thereabouts.

“And it’s just easier, it’s not as hard on them – running over shorter distances and not jumping, it’s just easier to keep them sound. She was second in Galway at the Festival, the first year we got her she was placed at the Festival and she went back the following year and was just beaten on the line.

“They’re easier to buy, they’re cheaper, the turnover is quicker. A National Hunt horse can take plenty of time but a yearling can be a quick turnover to run on the flat.”

Part of the reason Magee tweaked his approach was that, with so much money flooding into the jumps game, it has become very expensive to acquire the ammunition needed to win races.

“It’s got so hard to buy them as unbroken three-year-olds, they have just gone too expensive.

“To buy them unbroken as three-year-olds, you’re talking 30 to 40 grand and that’s at the low end of it. That’s why we moved away from that and started buying more flat yearlings. The whole idea is then that if they’re not fast enough for the flat, you can still go jumping with them whereas if they’re too slow for jump racing, they’re hunters then, there’s no real second go at them then.

“When we’re buying a yearling, we’re buying them with an eye on that. Like Arch Enemy, she can switch it – she can run on the flat, win a Premier Handicap, then a couple of months later she wins over hurdles.”

The nuts and bolts of training flat and jumps horses isn’t that different, Magee explained.

“We start working them over further (jumps horses), trying to build up stamina, but their day-to-day routine doesn’t really change too much.”

“In the ‘24/25 jumps season, we’re operating at six runners, two winners, a 33% strike rate which is savage.

“We don’t have too many jumpers, we only keep what we think will win. To me, it’s just gone so expensive. I get plenty of jump horses in but they don’t all end up ever seeing the track, they’re just not good enough and you just send them home, you don’t waste people’s money.

“I probably bought most of them myself. I bought Arch Enemy, Fergal and his Dad would have bought Good Deal, that’s their horse. Two years ago I decided to more go down the flat route and I bought four yearlings myself and they’ve all won bar one. When I switched, they really clicked that year, that was last season, we had a great run with those two-year-olds.

“To me, it’s easier. If I was buying a horse for a syndicate now, it’s a flat horse I’d buy. The cost of keeping them is dear so the quick turnaround helps, you could buy a yearling in November and it might run in March or April.”

While there is a school of thought that the number of small trainers, like publicans, is declining, Magee feels it is still healthy.

“There seems to be plenty of people at it. For me, I found it was very hard starting off and getting going but once you get going, you get your numbers up and you get your facilities up and running and your stuff paid for, I find it has got easier.

“We’re up to 20 horses now so you’ve full-time staff… when you’re starting off on your own it’s harder, you try to do everything yourself but you soon realise that you have to start shipping off some of the responsibility.

“We’re full up with 20 horses, we’re just trying to get more boxes basically.”

The last time the Celt caught up with Magee, a horse called She’s All Vintage was his stable star. Unfortunately, an injury put paid to her chances, showing again just how precarious the game can be.

“She won but she got hurt,” Magee recalled.

“Young horses are so hard to keep standing. The likes of Arch Enemy there, the reason why she’s got so much prizemoney is that she’s just so consistent, she has never given us a moment’s worry. And I think a lot of that is from running them on the flat, it is just easier to keep them sound.

“She’s a real pet. A young girl in the yard who works for me, Emily Fleming from Kingscourt, rides her out every day.”

Lismacbryan winning (40/1) at the Curragh last October was a notable feather in the Cavan trainer’s cap but the standards keep rising.

“When you’re going racing and you’re coming up against the likes of Aidan O’Brien, your standards have to be very high. They’re making everyone else better, raising the standards – how they look, how they operate, the stuff they do.

“It’s hard every time you go racing and say Willie Mullins there has five or six winners in every meeting. Good Deal that day, Willie had the odds-on favourite – our horse had really good form but Willie had five winners that day so the horse in the bumper just kept shortening and shortening.

“You have to go and take them on. I just think Willie Mullins is the king but you still have to go and take them on.”

Magee is currently in the process of establishing the Breffni Racing Club, with the final details to be confirmed. Syndicates and racing clubs are becoming more popular and provide an opportunity for people to get a share in a horse and enjoy some days racing – with the possibility of landing a star.

“There are horses in the yard there for sale if any syndicate wants to get involved. It is expensive but if you have four or five, it is very manageable.

“When you start off on your own, lads can have a good day out. There is a syndicate in Shercock, the Eleven Apostles, bought a horse in November, got three days’ racing, she was placed first time out. It can be done.

“You don’t have to always be selling. When you break it down, it’s probably the price of a cup of coffee a day when you have, say, 10 owners. Arch Enemy, as I said, cost €1000.”

The reason?

“She just doesn’t have a massive pedigree, if they’re a little bit smaller or whatever, the flat yearlings are not expensive. The problem is you might have to take on Aidan O’Brien with them.

“But there are good incentives on the flat, there are sales races and they get lighter weights. The prizemoney is better on the flat and the incentives are there, there are plenty of races where you don’t have to take on Aidan and all those.”

The Flat season will begin in May and Magee is aiming towards then. Before that, he will have some runners in Dundalk and some over jumps and will continue to be a regular fixture on the beach in Co Meath, where he brings his string regularly.

“Arch Enemy will probably run over hurdles towards the end of the month. Good Deal could go to the Dublin Racing Festival for one of those winners’ bumpers, that would probably be a big enough one for us.

“We do a lot of work on the beach and I think it’s massive. We bring them to Mornington, we spend a lot of time walking them in the sea. Arch Enemy loves it up there, she’s very quiet at home and when she comes up there she comes alive and goes at it.

“Walk them in the sea for half an hour after it, it’s like a spa for them. It cools down their legs and any cuts or anything, it cleans them up.

Whatever is in the sea air, it’s good for their lungs too. Big trainers are putting in salt rooms but you can’t beat the natural salt water and air. I just wish I was a bit closer to it.”

The recent cold snap has had an effect on the day-to-day routine but it’s something Magee and his staff were prepared for.

“It’s massive, some of them go away and others, you take the opportunity to give them their flu vaccinations and give them an easy enough time. You know it’s coming after Christmas every year.

“We have walkers, they’re kept moving. Anything that’s running in the next couple of weeks, we box them off and bring them up and down to the beach.”

Asked, before finishing up, for a horse to follow, Magee goes with the tried and trusted.

“I do think Arch Enemy, you can just set your clock by her. Anyone that has been backing her or keeping an eye on her hasn’t gone far wrong, she would never let you down, she’s always there or thereabouts.

“She’s only five, she’s getting stronger. When anyone asks me that, I say her – she never lets you down and I do think she’s getting better and better.”

A familiar story.