Ciaran Murphy

I'm from a place called Ballymore just outside Mullingar and am from a farming background. We were always farming when we were young, and playing football and hurling. An English lady called Clarissa Crowl came over to live near us at home and she would hunt horses. We started to help her out and she taught us how to ride in return. My twin brother, Joseph, and I both started riding and hunting there, and we enjoyed it. It all sort of built from there. It was a great grounding as she was an English lady that came over to hunt and she did things properly. Everything stood to us from dress code to producing the horses properly, and doing everything right in relation to stable management. That has stood to us the whole way through.

I'd say my interest in horses exploded after that, and it was the same for my brother. We met Dot Love on the hunting field and she maybe saw something, or some sort of talent, in us. I don't know what it was, but she took both of us under her wing at that point. We started eventing, producing horses and showjumping. When I left school, I served my time as a carpenter so I'm a carpenter by trade. I worked in Dublin. I used to leave at 5.30am and go there and come back and do the horses in the evening. It was something I wanted to do and we came from a working-class background, so it was absolutely no trouble. We sort of built it up from there then and started eventing and then started to go up the grades in the eventing. We had a couple of nice horses and Dot was obviously teaching both Joseph and I at the time. We had a certain amount of success at that then. It came to a point where both of us had qualified for the European Championships. I was riding a lovely mare called Just Beauty Queen belonging to Dot and I knew I was going to have to take the next step if I wanted to do it. I kind of always had the racing in the back of my mind. I went that route and my brother stuck to the eventing.

We bought point-to-pointers and produced them and I started to ride in point-to-points. We had plenty of luck there with point-to-pointers, young horses and older horses under Dot's name. It progressed from there over the years and we got experience. We had some nice horses in the yard for Gigginstown, so that kept the ship afloat. We were able to buy a few horses and learn about it at the same time. I was getting experience and Dot took out the training licence (in 2001).

Liberty Counsel winning the Irish Grand National in 2013 was absolutely amazing. Huge credit to the owners (Neale/Murtagh Partnership). We ran in the Kim Muir at Cheltenham and I was riding her. They had the frost covers on that year and when they took them off, the ground was like a glue-pot. She jumped off and couldn't lie up, she just couldn't handle the ground. It was probably a very disappointing run (in mid-division) - we didn't expect that as we thought she would run a nice race. No question it was down to the ground. That was that and we came home and we brushed ourselves off. I know she was a big price at 50/1 for the Irish Grand National, but she was bottom-weight and was flying at home. Everything was in our favour. It would be very hard to say you were going to win an Irish National and you wouldn't dare think that, but we did like where we were going there. It worked out beautifully and Ben Dalton was brilliant on her. It was a massive story for a small yard. It gave us satisfaction to know that we could do the job and we built on that then over the years. We had loads of nice owners in the yard at the time and they all backed us. Some of the horses were good enough and some of them weren't, but we felt we made the most of what we had. She was one example of that. We were never in the position to buy a nice flashy expensive horse. We were always used to trying to make the most out of what we had and we felt that's what we did.

Gigginstown then changed their whole way of doing things (scaled back). We had a brilliant relationship with them for 20 years. Eddie (O'Leary) is a great friend of mine and still is. He always supports me and has a horse with me every year, and I really appreciate that. Michael (O'Leary) has been brilliant. We had some lovely horses through the yard and that's an understatement to be honest. We learned a lot from having those horses and from both of them as individuals. It was a huge grounding for me, I felt that I was always learning and wanted to learn. They are the sort of people that you like to learn from. That was a huge link-up. Obviously, it was a massive shock when it came to an end, but we knew it wasn't our doing. It was just that they were changing their whole plan. We took it on the chin and had a little bit of a regroup, and then we went again.

I was always very much hands on in the yard and Dot and I never spoke about changing the licence - I never wanted to do that until Dot mentioned it to me and said that she was happy to hand over the licence. I grabbed it then with both hands. We had a fairy tale end with Dot signing off with a winner (Flindt in the Happy Retirement Dot Love Ladies Handicap Hurdle at Fairyhouse in January 2021). It worked out beautifully and I have enjoyed it then ever since. Dot is on the phone to me at 7.30am every morning asking what I want her to do that day! She is a role model and young people should take note of her work ethic and experience. She's a star and has been so good to me. She does whatever has to be done. It was a very natural transition and we like the same type of horses and get on very well. I'm in Charlestown (Stud) nearly 30 years now.

I have to say winning the maiden in the Curragh last Sunday week with Dupont Law was very special. I suppose it was something that was very hard to do. We set out to do it last year and that race was a long-term plan. To achieve that was very satisfying. We have to showcase ourselves because we have to go back to the Sales and we have to try and buy a nicer horse. I really want to showcase the operation we have and let people know that we can do this, if people give us a chance. There's no question we can do it with the ammunition, but you have to let the horses do the talking. I was really proud of the horse and the staff that we were able to get him there on that day and do it.

We have 80 boxes and we have always two barns with young horses coming through. We have loads of owner/breeders that send us horses and we try and produce those as best we can. We like to buy a nice horse at the Sales and if we can't afford him, we just walk away. We do cull horses - if we feel they are not good enough for an owner, and they are not able to achieve, we are honest with the owner and we move them out of the system. That is a trait I have always used, it has always stood to me. I feel that if you can be honest with the owners, they appreciate that and will buy another one or they will support you in any way they can.

I suppose at the moment we are sort of half and half in terms of National Hunt and Flat horses. We don't tend to have that many winter jumpers because we can't afford them. No disrespect to the people who are doing that very, very well, but we can't afford that. We have to be realistic, so we probably have more summer jumpers. We have been buying yearlings for the last five or six years, and we have sold one or two every year and got on well. The plan would be to definitely go back to the Sales again and try and buy a few more yearlings and top up and buy a nice type of horse, sort of a mile, mile and a-quarter horse. That would be my goal. A nice, scopey individual that can run from sort of seven furlongs to a mile and a-quarter. One that could really be a nice three-year-old type. They are the real nice type of horses that I'd love to train.

We get them all fit, so that is the basic sort of practice. The Flat horses don't do as much on the deep sand, they get on to a different surface and we are that bit easier on them. The National Hunt horses take a little bit more graft, they take a little bit more work and schooling. There is a lot of work in the National Hunt horses with youngsters coming through. I enjoy both codes. Commercially, the Flat is probably better and that's probably more the direction I'd like to be heading if I could afford to do that.

I think the Irish racing industry is good. It is tough on staff, though. The long days and the weather aren't great. It is hard work and they need every reward that they get along the way. I think staff should be very much appreciated by trainers and owners. If we have a winner, my owners are great and they will look after the staff. It is not all about that, though, it is more the appreciation and I think everyone needs to be appreciated. I also need to appreciate the owners as a trainer. Everyone then is happy and you get enough out of it. When you go to the races and have a good day and a good experience, I think everyone seems to be happy after that.

Ciaran 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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