Richard O'Brien

I qualified as a dentist but it was always a lifetime ambition to train racehorses and I've managed to unearth some smart performers along the way. I took out a licence in late 2016 and am based in Ballingarry, Co Limerick.

I was very much focused on the Flat when I started off but we've had a good run of success with bumper horses in more recent times and I'm happy to train any type of horse. We had a real chasing type in Sparkling Stars last year and he won a couple of handicap hurdles for us, while at the same time Pandemic Princess was doing well in six furlong handicaps at Dundalk. We have the facilities to do the job with whatever type of horse comes to us.

Impulsive Dancer won the first four-year-old bumper at Naas in January last year and went on to win a Listed bumper at Limerick for Willie Mullins. He carried the colours of Simon Munir and Isaac Souede on the latter occasion and they seemed to be pleased with how the deal was conducted. They subsequently sent me a couple of horses including Surac who won first time out over hurdles at Ballinrobe in August. He had some solid form in juvenile contests afterwards and seems to have been given a reasonable mark, one that I think he can be competitive off when he's at his best. I also have a two-year-old for the same owners and he'll be one for later in the season. It's great to be training for these owners who have such a talented team of horses and they, along with their racing manager Anthony Bromley, are a pleasure to deal with.

We also had Shanbally Kid last year and he was impressive in a bumper at Clonmel before being bought by Gigginstown and sent to Willie Mullins. The form of his maiden hurdle win at Navan got a boost when the runner-up won a Grade 3 recently and he's a horse that you could see running well at the upcoming spring festivals.

Curlew Hill was another useful bumper horse that we brought along in his younger days. He got within two lengths of Energumene one day at Thurles before being sold to Gordon Elliott for whom he won twice.

This year we have Suttons Hill who's been runner-up to two Willie Mullins-trained horses in bumpers at Navan and Naas. On the first occasion he chased home It's For Me who is a leading fancy for the Cheltenham bumper. Suttons Hill has a lot of power and strength and looks like a horse from 30 years ago in terms of his conformation and, although he didn't fire on hurdling debut at Punchestown this week, I'm sure that wasn't his running and something will come to light. He's owned by a very enthusiastic and supportive syndicate and I believe he will be a smart jumper in time. He doesn't have much of a pedigree but you can get very talented jumps horses like that who can do well if they have the right physical make-up, even if they are not fashionably bred. Faugheen would be a good case in point. On the Flat, pedigree is more important for the top races and those pedigrees are pretty much the preserve of the elite.

I bought some nice store horses last year and they're coming along and will hopefully be able to make an impact later in the year.

A well-bred Flat horse that we did manage to acquire is Satono Chevalier who we bought out of Sir Michael Stoute's yard. He showed promise last year and has come good lately with back-to-back wins at Dundalk. He's been very impressive and the handicapper has had his say but I'm hopeful there might be more to come. I'm keen not to deviate from the all-weather for the moment but options at Dundalk are a bit limited in the coming weeks and we could look at something in England on Good Friday. I think he deserves a crack at a good pot and I'd prefer to find out if he's still well handicapped, or not, in a valuable race rather than one with an average prize fund.

I must pay tribute to his owners Frank and Maria Lynch who are great friends and are now being rewarded for their perseverance with this horse who has taken a bit of time. Along with Mick and Phil Hartnett, they've have been staunch supporters of mine since I began training. Maths Prize, who was owned in partnership by the two couples, was a horse who did really well for us a few years ago, winning twice at the Curragh and being Listed-placed before being sold for a lot of money to Hong Kong where he has been successful.

Morph Speed was an upwardly mobile handicapper for the yard in 2021 and Gwan So was a two-year-colt that very much went the right way the same year. He didn't get his head in front for us but was most progressive and ended up being rated 102 after being placed in a Listed race at the Doncaster St Leger meeting. He was sold to Australia for plenty of money having cost 16,000 guineas as a yearling. Horses like him might go under the radar a bit but I derived plenty of satisfaction from the way he improved throughout the season for us.

I hit the ground running in my first couple of years with a licence and had plenty of winners with a relatively small team of horses. It may have been the case that I had a batch of well-handicapped horses but we got the best out of them. Sometimes it can go the other way in terms of how they are rated and that is the nature of the game. Obviously after a good start you think about the possibility of building up a very big string but I'd like to think I was always realistic in terms of the business model.

There are advantages for owners in having horses trained in smaller yards in that they can have more access to the trainer, the staff and their own horse in such an establishment. I don't think anyone wants to see a limit being put on the numbers any trainer can have, but I would like to see a fair statistical comparison being made available to the public and to prospective owners. The bigger yards are often in a position to sift through loads of horses, many of whom never see the light of day, before deciding which ones to retain and put into full training whereas the smaller yards don't have the luxury of having waves of horses coming along. Maintaining a full register of all the horses that pass through all yards is feasible and is something that should be made publicly available. It would be helpful to professionals, like agents and racing managers, in making an objective analysis as to how yards are doing and would be preferable to using some of the present statistics which are massively skewed in favour of the powerhouse yards. It's just about giving people a more accurate picture of what trainers of varying sizes can achieve.

The bigger yards also have an advantage in recruiting staff. There's a brilliant work environment with a real camaraderie and social element in the big yards and that is obviously very attractive to young people who want to work in racing. It just means that recruiting staff is a big obstacle to the growth of medium-sized yards in rural areas. Riding racehorses is a real skill and getting good riders is so difficult with a lot of expense and bureaucracy involved in getting work permits for people from the likes of South America, Eastern Europe and Asia. Ireland is a world leader in racing and to maintain that we need to facilitate foreign riders and staff in being able to live and work here. I really feel the authorities need to do more on this issue. Someone should be tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that we can access staff from abroad with a much more streamlined work permit system and a recruitment drive to encourage people to work with horses in Ireland. It's a serious problem and one which will damage the industry here if it's not addressed.