Master Appeal (centre)© Photo Healy Racing
John Kiely is in his 66th year training horses and the veteran handler seemed to get immense satisfaction from sending out Master Appeal to win the Vinegar Hill Beginners Chase at Wexford today, under jockey Andrew Lynch.
Master Appeal was scoring his fifth career success, and his first since October 2016, when being produced by Lynch with a well timed challenge to score a five lengths win over Fire In His Eyes
Kiely later treated Attheraces viewers to a fascinating interview with Gary O'Brien, where the trainer revealed “originally I've trained since my father (Matt) died in 1974 but I was training since 1953 — it's a long time!”
Kiely's secret to success is “good hard work and the thrill of the whole thing. When you have owners that are patient and who get a result at the end - that is what is important.”
The Irish Gold Cup winning trainer added “the owners are from Cork, they have been with me for about 30 years. It's wonderful that they have so much patience as this horse got injured in Tramore, he was out for a good bit and we thought we'd have to write him off. He went to Fethard Equine Centre where they done a good bit of work on him and here we are.
"He likes top of the ground and will keep going for the summer. Andrew gave him a great ride."
Quotes from Donal Murphy
