Claire O'Connell

I'm from Ashbourne, Co Meath and my dad actually bought the farm off Mick Dreaper who would have been Tom Dreaper's older brother, so we train here in the original Dreaper home. I would have been at home with my dad helping in the yard riding ponies, pony club, and helping him at the point-to-point where he was a steward. From a very young age, I was always working with the horses. My most memorable day in racing was when Classical Charm was second in the Champion Hurdle (of 1988 trained by my father Al O'Connell). My dad bought him as a yearling and he was a pet horse around the place. He probably gave us our greatest memories.

I went to UCD and did a degree in Science there and I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do afterwards, I was very interested in Science. I did work for Tattersalls during a summer when I was in college and I also went to John Hammond in Chantilly for three months riding out and falling off! I was assistant to my dad and then I took over the licence from him in 2009. We were doing it together until he passed away in 2018.

I do a bit of pre-training as well, I have an English owner and I look after his mares. We actually have seven mares in foal on the farm at the moment. A lot of the horses that we run we have bred and we look after them from conception until they get to the racetrack. I sent two horses that were reared on the farm over to Lucy Wadham - Terresita has won three times in Britain and Taras Halls won first time out in a bumper at Huntingdon in January. They all come back to me for their summer holidays and then I send them back in October.

Glen Ava went over to Iain Jardine in Scotland and she won three races in Perth last year, and won a handicap chase at Limerick in May for me. We will breed off Glen Ava now. My husband and I bought the grand-dam of Glen Ava before we got married, 21 years ago with our wedding money! She bred the dam of Glen Ava.

I leased Born Famous over to Iain and she has won three in a row now including at Aintree on her last start. She would be the sixth generation of that family on the farm. She was bred by Famous Name and I remember our great pal, the late Pat Smullen, told us how tough and hardy Famous Name was and how resilient he was. I brought the mare four times to be covered and then she produced this Famous Name foal. It always brings me a smile thinking of Pat when she runs.

We have mares of our own and we look after mares for other clients. Some of them we break and pre-train. We are lucky enough the Dreapers are next door and they are fantastic neighbours and they do a lot of schooling there. We try and do the best for the horse - some people ask why I would take them to England? If it is the best thing for the horse, I'll do the best for the horse.

We usually have seven or eight horses to run. I have a syndicate horse Catherine Chroi and we sent her over to Scotland for the winter because Dundalk is so competitive and we just felt she could do with a bit of confidence. We always thought she was better going straight and she ended up winning twice at Newcastle during the winter. She has been second twice now that she is back with me. Hopefully, she will get her head in front.

Empty Metaphor was fourth in a Group 3 at Leopardstown in April and won his maiden at Limerick the same month. He was sold to the Minister for Defence in Qatar, so he is going to Qatar, but was still in England for Royal Ascot (unplaced in Group 3 Jersey Stakes). Andrew Lynch (former jockey) does a lot of the breaking with me and does a lot of the schooling. His dad would have ridden for my dad. Empty Metaphor was owned by his wife, he was a breezer that Andrew didn't sell. Andrew's experience is invaluable and he's very good at schooling. That's the way it has gone with small trainers, everybody has to help everybody. You can't afford to have a staff, my three children call themselves my slaves! My husband works in pharmaceuticals, but he helps out of hours. It is a family-run business. My brother and cousins live down the road.

We sent Our Dickie over to Iain Jardine and he would suit a big string. He won in September (at Punchestown) and was my first Flat winner, and we were absolutely delighted. He was owned by a syndicate of people from our local GAA club. He's called after a man called Dickie Sweeney who actually gave me my first pony back in the day! Joey Tormey, an uncle of Andrew Lynch's, would have been the main man involved with him and he had just passed away before that.

I'd like to get a few more owners in. When you have a very small string, you don't have any back-up plan and it is hard to actually employ anybody when you are just tipping away with not that many horses. I don't mind working away at them - in spring you are dealing with the mares and foals, in the summer it is your breakers and you are pre-training, and then the autumn prepping Sales and you are getting the horses ready for the winter. The winter can be hard enough, but you know the spring is around the corner and it all starts again. To have your little bits of everything is very enjoyable. I think the foals are fantastic to be involved with from covering.

I think the racing industry is a vocation. I'm in a very lucky position that I am on my family farm and my husband works, so I'm not trying to rear a family off horses. When Empty Metaphor was fourth in the Group 3, Aidan O'Brien came over congratulating me and he had the winner and the third! I was overjoyed coming fourth. People are very genuine, I must say. It is a tough sport and everyone is competing against each other, but I think there is a great camaraderie within racing. I wouldn't put anyone off racing, you just need to pick something that you enjoy first of all and then get into maybe in a small way, keep an eye on the books, and the rest will look after itself.