Dr Noel Cogan

I'm from Kells, Co Meath. I started off life big into sport. I played gaelic football around north Meath, I played in Croke Park in the All-Ireland Colleges. I played rugby in the winter, but I got massive injuries. I was in America in Ann Arbor, University of Michigan and I did a thesis on concussion. It was to do with American Football really. When I came home, I discovered I couldn't play any sport and I was still crazy for sport. I decided I would start riding horses and I was useless at it! I got falls and everything, so eventually I bought a bit of land outside the town where I live, a good bit of land and I built boxes.

I started breeding horses around 1980 and I'm an owner since then. I had one horse called African Chimes that I bred that was a prolific winner with Bill O'Gorman in England. I started small. I was a fitness fanatic and I used to spend my time walking foals. I built up a good few mares and then I got one good horse called Lady Bear. I sold her to Richard Fahey in England. She won the William Hill Mile in Glorious Goodwood (in 2003). She won a Listed race in Sandown the same month and plenty of other races. The fella that bought her was a director of Manchester United. We used to go over to Manchester United and met up with Richard. He said to me one day 'Noel, before I got Lady Bear I had 20 boxes, but after I sold her five years later I had 100 boxes and 100 acres of land that I owned'. He always said that I started him off.

I used to pinhook foals and sell them. I knew pedigrees very well. I was good on pedigrees. We used to have a few horses at home where I lived. I was big into getting into better pedigrees. When Montjeu won the Arc in 1999, I said 'as sure as I'm alive, the first nice filly foal that comes up by Montjeu, I will buy it'. I went up to Goffs and I paid 75,000 for a foal at that time which was a lot of money because I was only developing a practice then. I ran a hospital as well. It was a big job together with running a practice and walking foals' day and night. I wasn't making any money, but I wasn't losing much either. I call all my fillies after opera singers and her name was Leala after a famous French opera singer. She didn't win and that was a big blow to me spending all that money. I started breeding with her then and the first foal I couldn't sell. The next foal was Obviously. I still couldn't sell him. I brought him up to Goffs and all I was getting was three thousand. Peter Fahey bought him and he won a good handicap in Dundalk, and then went to California. He is the only horse in history that won the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile in Santa Anita twice in 2013 and 2014. The Shoemaker Mile celebrated the life of Bill Shoemaker, the legendary jockey. He won the Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Santa Anita in 2016. He is retired now, but I got a great run out of him because I had a half-sister then who unfortunately died this year. I sold a filly foal to a fella in Kildare and he called it Lealas Daughter. She never won either. Soprano, who won the Sandringham at Royal Ascot and a Group 3 at Deauville for George Boughey this year, was out of Lealas Daughter, though. She was also third in the Group 1 Matron Stakes at Leopardstown in September. In actual fact, I have some of the family here still.

I bought another yard, so I have two yards now. One of them is in Castlepollard and one of them is near Oldcastle. The last five years I stopped selling yearlings and I started putting them in training. Bessie Abott won at this year's Galway Festival and was sold to race in America. I wasn't at the race in Galway as I had a family illness and neither my son nor I could go. Dermot Kilmartin pre-trains my horses and he asked would I have another go racing La Dame Blanche after a broken pelvis. She was then second out of 22 at Navan in June and the following Friday she won a premier handicap in the Cork Derby. She went up and took the feature race in Ballinrobe the following month. We get the horses fit with Dermot and then we put them with different trainers.

Navan was always my track, and I always went to it, and I got to know everyone there. I started in Navan as racecourse doctor in 1998. I check all the ambulances to see the oxygen is working, check the stretchers and the gear. I would give the ambulance staff a short talk on the racing highlighting the specifics of each race. Then I was asked to do Fairyhouse and I did it for years. I also did Bellewstown last year. You go on a rota at Christmas for the racecourses for the year ahead.

We must have 30 horses here, it is all go. I enjoy everything to do with horses because my son is brilliant with them. He did engineering in college, but never liked it. When he reached about 30, he just took off with the horses. I'm an owner for 45 years and love having runners. I bought yearlings this year already and I'm going to have a lot of runners next year. We have about 15 mares now, a good few yearlings, several foals and we are going to expand next year. I do sports medicine as well and I still work with a GAA club as a doctor for them.

Noel was in conversation with Michael Graham.

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About Michael Graham

Michael has worked in horse racing journalism for more than 15 years, having also written a weekly betting column on Gaelic football and hurling for a newspaper. He is involved in writing the My Racing Story features on this website. He spent a year in South Africa completing a Diploma in Business Administration and also studied Newspaper Journalism in Belfast. He enjoys playing 5-a-side football on a regular basis.

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