Kyle Browne McGuigan

I’m 18 years old and I work with my father Declan at our yard near Letterkenny. I’m a cousin of Dylan Browne McMonagle, my mother and Dylan’s mother are sisters.

We pre-train horses before they go to Charlie Moore at Swilly View Stables which is just a few minutes from our yard. Three of them have run in my own colours this year and they’ve all performed well. Charlie has done a fantastic job with all the horses for us and we are very thankful for all the great work he has put in this year.

We have nine boxes ourselves at home and that’s enough for us, we can give the horses a lot of individual attention. Johnny Holian is our main work rider and is a massive part of our operation. We couldn’t be doing what we are now if it wasn’t for him.

I grew up in a pony-racing family and region and, if it wasn’t for that, I probably would never have had an interest in horses.

Dylan had a great career in the pony-racing and obviously he’s flying now on the track. It’s great when he can ride my horses in their races and makes it extra-special.

There’s so much talent coming through in the pony-racing and it doesn’t get half the recognition it deserves. A lot of hard work and graft goes into it on a voluntary basis and they all deserve a pat on the back. For example, my uncle Adrian runs a meeting at Big Isle Manor near Letterkenny and that’s a great venue. It was sad when the insurance issue put a stop to pony-racing for a while earlier in the summer and it was great to see Dingle getting such crowds last weekend.

Luke McAteer is from Rathmullan and he started off in pony-racing. His grandfather Tom McLaughlin had a trainers’ licence at one time and Luke would have started off with him. He’s never looked back since and is a great rider.

Then there’s Oisin and Conor Orr from Rathmelton. Their mum is a riding instructor who uses the beach at Rathmullan and and she got the two boys going. Brandon Wilkie, who grew up just over the road from me, is another jockey from our part of the country. He was late getting into horses and only started riding racehorses when he was fourteen or fifteen but he’s a great rider too for all the experience he has. He rode a winner for Tim Easterby earlier this year.

Our horses do most of their fast work on the beaches in Donegal and we’ve plenty of them to choose from. Rathmullan and Downings are two that we use quite a lot.

We tend to buy experienced handicappers and the beach is brilliant for those older horses. We bought a couple that had lost their way a bit but bringing them to the beach has meant they’ve all bounced back to form. They love it there and it really sweetens them up.

I was always too big to be a jockey and I don’t do much riding anymore, I do most of the ground work at home nowadays. Myself and my dad work together when we’re buying horses. We have a look at their form and their ratings and see how they’ve lost their way. Celtic Manor won first time out this year at Sligo and has been placed a couple of times since. He’s having a wee break at the moment and he’ll be back towards the end of the year when there’s a bit of dig in the ground.

Turbine is nine years old now and he ran a cracker to be second in Galway. That was only his second start since we bought him and Dylan rides him at Leopardstown on Thursday. Coviglia was another horse that we freshened up after he came from England. Dylan won on him at 40/1 at Dundalk back in April on his first run for seven months. He’s been placed three times on the turf this summer and we hope to run him back at Dundalk on Monday.

Beer With The Boys, who’s owned by Mr Crawford and trained by Charlie, is a horse my dad bought out of Mick Channon’s yard a few years ago. He picked that one out himself. We gave him plenty of time off and schooled him over hurdles. He won on the Flat at Ballinrobe in July and has also been placed three times this year. He might go hurdling during the winter.

Dad has trained loads of winners on the pony-racing circuit, maybe a couple of hundred at this stage. He’s completed the trainers’ course at the Curragh and is just waiting for his inspection. So hopefully, before too long, he’ll have his licence and we can have runners from our own place. That’s the plan anyway and it’s something to look forward to.