Matthew Smith

I'm from Kilmessan, Co Meath and my father always owned racehorses throughout the years. I did a little bit of hunting as a teenager. I did my Leaving Cert in 2001 and I started working on buildings for a good few years. I always had an interest in racing, but no actual involvement. Then around 2006/2007 I started working for John Carr for a little bit, then I was with Robbie Hennessy for a couple of years and then with Michael Mulvany. I was riding out for them and going racing, leading up and working in the yards. I really got a taste for it then. My father had two point-to-pointers and I started messing around with them and learning, basically.

Around the end of 2012, I took out my training licence and had my first runners. I trained at the home place in Kilmessan. I have since moved nearby where I have 40 odd stables, a three-and-a-half-furlong gallop and everything we need. We bought two horses out of the Horses In Training Sale around 2010/2011 and they were called Rawnaq and Gretzky. We bought cheaply, Gretzky was something like three, three and a-half thousand. He won for me in January 2013 (at Dundalk) and went on to win five times in Dundalk. Rawnaq was a great horse for me, he won the Grade 2 chase in Navan, the Flyingbolt, in February 2015. That was a big winner to get there after not training that long really. We only had a handful of horses starting out and got a few winners and started to get a few more horses. A couple of local lads got a few horses and another horse that won a couple of races for us early on was Green Energy. Another couple of great days involved Rawnaq. On my first time in Cheltenham, he ran in the Grade 3 Greatwood Hurdle (in 2013). He finished an unlucky third, but that was a brilliant day. He was third then at the Festival in March 2015 in the Grade 3 Brown Advisory & Merriebelle Stable Plate and was probably a bit unlucky again.

I bought Ronald Pump as a three-year-old store horse in the August Sale and got a few lads involved in him and we paid €1,000 for him. His prize money earnings say €250,000, unreal. He was a tricky enough horse to train, but gave you great satisfaction. A small little horse and was probably unlucky not to win the Stayers' Hurdle at Cheltenham in 2020 - we ran into traffic problems and he had to check his run and got going again in second.

Obviously, I wasn't brought up in racing and went into it with no contacts and I thought starting out if I worked hard and got a few winners, the horses would come. They weren't really coming as a result of getting a few winners or improving horses, they were kind of through friends. When One Cool Poet did the three wins in a week at the Galway Festival in 2019, I started getting outsiders ringing me to take horses. That really gave me plenty of publicity, that week in Galway was unreal. Then on Irish Champions Weekend, he ran in Leopardstown on the Saturday in the Petingo, and was keen and didn't settle and ran disappointingly. He was declared for the next day (in the Curragh) and Billy Lee said he wasn't that happy with him. The following day he was in great form, though, and he won the Northfields. That was a great day having disappointed the previous day.

It depends on the horse really (running them back-to-back), One Cool Poet and Dartan are tough horses and you can do it with horses like that especially at this time of year when they are running on good ground. Obviously, winter racing is a bit different. I'd never be afraid to run them if they are well.

We have about 25 horses in at the minute and we are definitely open for more. There's room for another 20 horses. You are trying to get winners, lads are paying you and you want to get winners for them. Also coming across nice horses like Dartan and La Hacienda helps. I am buying cheap horses really and hoping for a bit of luck. Unfortunately, we don't really have any major big owners. La Hacienda won the Northumberland Vase at Newcastle in July and Dartan won a handicap at the Curragh on the same day. It was great to have an across-the-card double. I was looking there, Dartan is a 140-rated hurdler and 92 on the Flat now. If the ground is suitable, and he's getting in, we will probably take our chance in the Petingo in the Irish Champions Festival this month. He's a very good horse. La Hacienda has the same options (Petingo and Irish Cesarewitch). It is nice to have a couple of nice horses that you can run in those big races.

My son James got his amateur licence last year and had his first ride at Punchestown in a bumper. He had his first winner the day after Galway in Cork last year on Cassarina Gold. He also rode a bumper winner on Moonovercloon at Kilbeggan in September last year. He made the decision to go conditional early on this year because I wouldn't have the horses for him in bumpers. He was good off the front in Dartan in Bellewstown last month. He's a good young lad and he's working hard. He has ridden five winners over hurdles this season. He'll go well and he's doing the right things. He's in every day with me.

There are tough days in racing, but when it is good it is brilliant. Dartan winning twice in two days at Bellewstown during the week makes it all worthwhile. You are getting up every day and hoping you get more winners.