Heather Heffernan© Photo Healy Racing
I am from Vicarstown in Co Laois and I started riding when I was four. We had ponies and my brother and sister rode. I evented and we did the pony club right the way up and I got all my exams. I competed in the inter-schools for Kilkenny College and Danny Mullins would have been on one of our teams. I will hold my hands up - if it wasn't for my dad, I probably wouldn't be in horses. He gave up everything and went over and above for all of us. We always had really nice horses underneath us. I started racing through Liam Cusack. I evented and his partner, Jane Tiffin, was my dressage trainer. I used to go to Liam at the weekends and any time I could get out of school. He was very good to me and taught me a helluva lot. I used to ride out in the mornings, three or four lots in the morning. I would brush down and rug up and I would get lessons with Jane. He brought me up to Johnstown Gallops and I got to work a few as well, although they worked me more than I worked them! I loved it - Liam was very easy to work for, you put your head down and you did what you were told. If he spoke, you listened to him.
Then I met James Fahey and he took out his handler's licence. We had a few point-to-pointers and I think we got the bug for it, so he took out his trainer's licence about four years ago. We moved to Vicarstown and started from there with one of our own and with Pat Rogers who was the first owner with us. We picked up slowly but surely every season. This is definitely our best season so far. We had a good season last year, but around this time last year our horses were running so badly. I said to the owners I would have understood if they wanted to take the horses out. We did everything to try and figure out what it was and got the Irish Equine Centre out and it turned out to be Aspergillus in the yard. Frank Reynolds is the biggest owner we have in the yard and I owe everything to him. He has some really nice horses coming off point-to-point fields that he turned down a helluva lot of money for. He said not to panic and we would figure it out. James and I got up at 5am one morning in the middle of October and we created 27 paddocks outside, and two or three months later we had a winner. We threw everything outside and bought a nebuliser and it worked out, thank God. We have 22 riding out and 18 for the track.
Typical Thomas is one that is just improving every single time. He can jump a little bit left and can throw in an odd shaker of a jump but, once he jumps off and he gets himself to the front, he just does not stop. He is just so honest and doesn't mind being in front. Mark McDonagh gave him a peach of a ride in the Listed handicap chase in Cork this month. I have never watched any of the horses running since James took out the licence, I box walk! They get over the last or come to within 20 yards of the finishing line and James says 'It is okay Heather, you can look now!'. It was unbelievable to win that Listed race in Cork. I would always give them a roar and a shout while James is a very cool and collected person. To see him roar and shout was incredible because he is much more cool and collected. We got offers for him, but we weren't happy with them. It would be a bonus if we could keep him. If he was to go somewhere else, we did our job with him. I'd say he will get a week or two of a break and he will head for Leopardstown at Christmas for a good handicap chase. Before then, if something appeals to us we could go back over hurdles. We would have no problem going over hurdles with him, but his game is chasing. He's better over a fence.
Typical Thomas winning at Cork© Photo Healy Racing
I have my first ride over hurdles today (Friday 27th October) on Derby De Thaix in Sligo. He was kindly gifted to me by Frank Reynolds. James said to me that if I wanted to ride over hurdles, that's the horse. He is so lowly rated, so it is hard to get him in. Then if I got him in, I couldn't do the weight. I can't wait. Ideally, he would kind of want the ground to be good to yielding. It is not in his favour but, if the two of us get around and come home safe, whatever we pick up after that will be a bonus. Frank Reynolds has always given me a spin on one of his in bumpers. I'm 31 years of age and I have a little 17-month-old fella at home. I'd like to keep riding for as long as I can, but I'm not looking to be the next Rachael Blackmore or anything like that. I absolutely love it when I do get a spin, it is a great buzz.
The Corinthian Challenge (in 2019) was probably the best three months of my life, it was absolutely and utterly brilliant. The thing that I liked about it was that you went out the first day in the Curragh, and you thought it was brilliant craic, and you went back and looked at it and you thought ' God, look what I did there'. The next ride you were better and you improved the whole time. As an owner, the reason I did it was in relation to what we ask those jockeys to do as it is probably the only sport that an ambulance follows. I think I raised over €18,000 for the Irish Injured Jockeys Fund. I rode Jazz Ranger in it and he used to run away with me every day at home. I rode him in a piece if work up the Old Vic and I could not hold one side of him. I jumped off him at the top of the hill and fell on the ground and said to James 'I can't do this, I'm not going to be able to get this fella to the start.' I was bricking it going down to the Curragh and, when I got him to the races, I had to kick him in the belly down to the start. He totally went the other way. Jazz made it totally enjoyable, he was a lovely ride. I got more confidence every time I rode him. I will say the last day in Leopardstown was cut-throat, though, as the competitive streak came out in everyone!
Elaine O'Farrell took on the contract to do the sectional timing in Ireland and I came on board with Coursetrack to help her. The biggest thing is to make sure the track dimensions and distances are 100 per cent correct. Dundalk was the first track we went to because the rails never change, it was the same very single week. We did all the meetings in Dundalk last year. If you take Punchestown as an example in Ireland, there are six different tracks there so what we will be doing next year is using a GPS tracker when someone walks the track in the morning. The information and data goes to Chris Murtagh in Coursetrack who runs the sectional timing. We are currently working at Dundalk, Fairyhouse and Leopardstown, and all 26 racetracks in Ireland come on board at the start of 2024. There are 88 days next year with double meetings, so there may be opportunities for a couple of people to help us on the double days. For every horse that runs in a race, sectional timing times from the first furlong to the second furlong and so on. Each horse will have a sectional time for every furlong they run. We have seen cases in Dundalk over improvements in form and we looked at the race and saw that the first three or four horses went off at a fast gallop and the winner picked up the pieces. The winner went a nice, even gallop. Sectional timing will give trainers an unbelievable amount of information. A few people have asked me about doing them for the Dundalk barrier trials and I have talked to Chris and we are going to try and work it for the barrier trials.
I love working in the racing industry. It is not for the fainthearted, the weather doesn't make a difference as horses have to be fed and worked but, in my opinion, I think it is a very worthwhile job. You have to love to do it, but it is very rewarding. My son Charlie loves going to the races and everyone knows Charlie more than they know me!
Heather was speaking to Michael Graham.
